ENQA has been awarded Erasmus+ funding for a two-year project to support quality assurance agencies in providing assessments for the Joint European Degree Label. ENQA will partner with the Agency for the Quality of the Basque University System (Unibasq, Spain) and Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria (AQ Austria) to implement the project activities, with the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) contributing as associate partner.
The project consortium will offer a series of workshops to facilitate peer learning between agencies and support a shared understanding and consistency for Label assessments. This will include integration of Label assessments into existing agency processes, links with European Approach accreditations, and addressing open questions and challenges emerging from the first experiences.
The project will also explore the need and feasibility of launching a mechanism for the external review of agencies to verify how they conduct Label assessments in compliance with the label criteria and in line with the operational guide.
ENQA’s work on this topic recognises the critical role that quality assurance agencies play in making the Label initiative a success. Robust and consistent awarding of the Label will be vital for ensuring public trust in it, as well as for preparing the ground for the European Commission’s ambition to launch a Joint European Degree as a stand-alone qualification.
Information about the EDL-Ready workshop series will be shared with eligible agencies in the coming weeks. Further reflections on the Joint European Degree Label are available in ENQA’s briefing note, and in this recent article.