The “Note from the Director” is sent in order to update the membership on decisions and activities from recent Board meetings and events.

Using fake diplomas is not a new phenomenon and they will continue to pose challenges to higher education institutions, employers and recognition authorities in the coming years. However, recent initiatives may offer solutions to combat false diplomas, an article by University World News reveals. One example comes from Norway where nearly all diplomas that have been issued by Norwegian institutions have been digitalised in an online portal, which allows students to provide secure and time-limited access to their data to an employer through an electronic link. This procedure ensures the authenticity of the documents and is a safe and cost-effective way for an employer to verify credentials. Other systems, at varying stages of development, are in operation for instance in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Romania, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom. Other European-level initiatives include the EMREX network, which permits individuals to manage their student data and to transfer credentials securely to employers, institutions and other parties, created by the Council of Europe, to combat fraud and corruption, including fraudulent qualifications. The FRAUDOC project, led by the Italian ENIC-NARIC CIMEA, has launched guidelines on diploma mills and documents fraud for credential evaluators. The guidelines give an overview of the phenomenon, but also provide tools and recommendations on how fraudulent documents can be detected.

The EAQA Agency Reviews process is designed to formally demonstrate agency’s compliance with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area in order to meet the expectations of the ENQA Board for membership applications and those of the European Quality Assurance Register Forum (EQARF) for the purpose of registration. The process stimulates trust in quality assurance and quality of higher education internationally, and supports and adds to the legitimacy of the reviewed agency at the national level (where relevant).

During the Forum, paper sessions, world café discussions and workshops will provide space for more in-depth exchange about research, policy initiatives and practical case examples related to the Forum theme and more generally about current developments in QA. These sessions are an excellent opportunity for you to share experiences and gain fresh perspectives from colleagues from across Europe. The call for contributions welcomes submissions from QA practitioners in higher education institutions and quality assurance agencies, students, and researchers in the field.

The EAQA project aims to support stakeholders’ involvement in external quality assurance. The project will explore various categories of stakeholder engagement and expectations stakeholders have towards external quality assurance with the aim to make this engagement effective and diversified.

The 2023 publication covers various topics such as globalisation, citizenship and democracy, security, ageing and modern cultures. The report explains for example that education can play a role in helping to prevent or diminish security risks and better prepare citizens to tolerate adversity; or that education, while adapting to new technologies, should also address their misuse (fraud, identity theft or cyberbullying). Each chapter of the report concludes with possible but unexpected ways in which current trends may evolve.

Participants will also have an opportunity to discuss some of the challenges in meeting the expectations of the ESG 2015 and exchange ideas on how to approach the identified challenges. At the end, the seminar will present aims and benefits of a progress visit and how to prepare well for this post-review activity of EAQA Agency Reviews.

After popular demand, EAQA was pleased to launch our webinar series over the course of 2019 on an interesting collection of QA topics.

As artificial Intelligence (AI) development strategies are set to fuel competition in public and private spheres, UNESCO is calling to build an international community with shared values on AI development and its use in education. This comes with a recommendation for the member states to promote equitable use of AI in education collectively by sharing AI technologies, programmes and resources for capacity building. This is one of the key recommendations of the Beijing Consensus on AI in education adopted during the International Conference on AI and Education, held on 16–18 May in China’s capital. The Conference engaged more than 50 government ministers, over 500 international representatives from over 120 Member States and almost 100 representatives from UN agencies, academic institutions, civil society and AI industry leaders in discussions on how to best harness AI for the future of education. The Beijing Consensus is the first ever document ratified by ministries around the world on how to best harness AI in education, and use it as a lever for the achievement of the UNESCO Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4. It aims to act as a guideline document for governments, international organisations and industry to steer AI policies efficiently and with foresight.