At ENQA’s spring General Assembly on 22 April 2021, the Association elected new Board members and a new President.
Doris Herrmann (AQAS, Germany) and Jolanta Silka (AIC, Latvia) were elected to serve first terms on the Board. Daniela Cristina Ghiţulică (ARACIS, Romania) and François Pernot (HCERES, France) were both also re-elected to serve subsequent terms and to continue in their roles as Vice-Presidents.
ENQA members elected Douglas Blackstock as the new President. Douglas has been a Board member since 2019 and is currently Chief Executive Officer of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) in the United Kingdom.
Speaking after the election, Douglas said:
‘I am honoured that my colleagues have elected me to be the next president of ENQA, which is such an important and unifying body for a diverse range of systems and cultures of quality across the 49 countries of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). I look forward to delivering value for member agencies, and to address developing issues facing the sector such as maintaining academic integrity and the recognition of micro-credentials.’
‘The EHEA is a remarkable development that is influencing policy worldwide and I look forward to working with ENQA’s European partners to ensure that approaches to quality assurance respond effectively to innovation and change.’
Paying tribute to Christoph Grolimund, his predecessor as ENQA President, Douglas said: ‘He has steered ENQA through a period of change and built a platform for innovation and successfully represented ENQA at EHEA Ministerial forums. I enjoyed our times working together on developing a European programme for staff development in quality assurance.’
Douglas has also thanked outgoing ENQA Treasurer Anne Flierman for his outstanding service and leadership in the past few years.