EQAF 2011 – Quality and Trust: at the heart of what we do

The European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF), an annual event co-organised by EUA, ENQA, EURASHE and ESU, is the European conference on quality assurance in higher education that brings together all of the key stakeholders in the field – higher education institutions, quality assurance agencies and students. This event is considered by the four co-organising partners as a major contribution to QA in higher education, and a flagship activity in this field. The sixth European Quality Assurance Forum was hosted by the University of Antwerp and Artesis University College on 17-19 November 2011, and took place in Antwerp, Belgium.

The EQAF has been organised since 2006 and gained increasing popularity over the years. It provides a unique platform for the higher education and QA communities to follow, shape and anticipate developments in the area. The main purpose of the event is to foster a dialogue on quality assurance that bridges national boundaries and leads to a truly European discussion on QA in higher education (notably through the Bologna process higher education reforms), and thus create a common European understanding of QA through a dialogue among different stakeholder groups.

EQAF 2011 – Quality and Trust: at the heart of what we do
The sixth European Quality Assurance Forum, entitled “Quality and Trust: at the heart of what we do”, was hosted by the University of Antwerp and Artesis University College on 17-19 November 2011, and took place in Antwerp, Belgium. Through a mix of plenary and parallel sessions, EQAF 2011 specifically aimed to explore the impact and essence of both internal and external QA, and how QA can be further developed to serve these better.

This sixth Forum was also the occasion for the organisers to renew the format of the event and increase networking opportunities, exchange of practices among colleagues, and possibilities of getting updated on new QA developments. The parallel sessions, which were at the core of the Forum, allowed practitioners, institutional representatives, QA agencies, researchers and students to share their experiences and ideas in a truly bottom-up approach. The plenary sessions concentrated on reinforcing the idea that improving the quality of provision should remain the essential focus of QA, since it is this that will lead to trust-building among the stakeholders.

More information is available on the event website.