The Slovak Accreditation Agency for Higher Education (SAAHE) has undergone a demanding international evaluation by ENQA. The published evaluation report confirms compliance with the European Standards for Quality Assurance in Education ESG. This is an important step towards the full integration of Slovak higher education into the European area.
Last week, the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) published the final version of the SAAHE evaluation report “ENQA Agency Review”. This is the conclusion of the international evaluation of the Agency, which has been ongoing since October 2022. Experts visited the Agency in March 2023 and verified the facts through interviews with more than 50 people.
The Review Panel drew on both written and oral evidence. According to it, the SAAHE acted following European Standards and Guidelines (ESG) in the performance of its operations. The evaluation of the individual standards shows that all are fully compliant except for two partially compliant standards, namely ESG 3.3 Independence and ESG 2.7 Reporting.
“We are pleased that the evaluation concludes overall compliance with ESG. The report has 9 commendations and only 6 recommendations, which is a very good score, especially since we are a new Agency”, says Robert Redhammer, Chair of the Executive Board of SAAHE. “These and other recommendations for improvement will, of course, be addressed by the Agency in the period ahead,” he adds.
The experts in the report praised the work of the Agency and specifically highlighted its positive impact on changes in higher education in Slovakia by including an additional chapter, “Additional observations: external quality assurance as the driver of change in higher education.” The full document is available on the ENQA website: SAAHE-external-review-report.pdf (enqa.eu)
The review report and other documents have already been sent to the European Quality Assurance Register in Higher Education (EQAR). They are an important part of the Agency’s application for registration in this register. This application is expected to be considered by the relevant EQAR Commission at its meeting at the turn of the year.
“Although EQAR’s view of ESG compliance is often rigorous, we are confident that SAAHE will be successfully entered into the register and we will thus be able to once again take Slovak higher education one step further,” says Redhammer. The Agency’s evaluation is not the only one that has taken place in the education sector. In recent months, accreditations of higher education institutions have also been taking place, with reviews of their internal quality control, which will provide higher education institutions with several targeted recommendations for further improvement.
“The Agency would also like to thank all partners and collaborators for their helpfulness and support in our efforts to integrate Slovakia into the family of advanced European countries with confirmed compliance with the ESG 2015 standards,” concludes Redhammer.
