Members present at the ENQA General Assembly 2026 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain), elected Péter Levente Lakatos (MAB, Hungary) as President, after renewing his membership on the Board for a second full three-year term. Two new Board members were also elected: Varduhi Gyulazyan (ANQA, Armenia) and Ronny Heintze (AQAS, Germany) were elected for their first terms of three years. Board members Kristin Vinje (NOKUT, Norway) and Patrick Van den Bosch (VLUHR-QA, Belgium) continue their term as Vice-Presidents. Heli Mattisen (HAKA, Estonia) was nominated to serve as Treasurer.
Incoming President Péter Levente Lakatos thanked the members and emphasised “I am ready to bring my experience, energy and commitment to this task, to contribute to ENQA’s further progress for the interests of members. I look forward to furthering our ambitions with an active, collegial Board, the professional Secretariat, and engaged and proactive members. I would also like to thank former and outgoing Presidents Douglas Blackstock and Cristina Ghițulică for all the hard work done in recent years.”
The General Assembly expressed their appreciation for outgoing Board members, Cristina Ghițulică (ARACIS, Romania) and Doris Herrmann (AQAS, Germany), who leave the Board having reached the end of their mandates.
In her last speech as ENQA President, Cristina Ghițulică said: “I am very grateful to you for allowing me to be part of this for so many years. ENQA was part of my life in many ways for a long time. I always did my best, sharing my personal knowledge and my personal experience each time it was useful. I have learned a lot from everyone.”
Members present at the General Assembly also endorsed the Board’s decisions to reconfirm membership of the Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ), the Swiss Agency of Accreditation and Quality Assurance (AAQ), the Aragon Agency for Quality Assurance and Strategic Foresight in Higher Education (ACPUA, Spain), and the Danish Accreditation Council (Denmark). The review reports and related materials are available on the ENQA Agency Reviews’ database.
The General Assembly endorsed the Board’s decisions to grant affiliate status to the National Quality Assurance Agency for Education under the Administration of the Republic of Uzbekistan (NQAAE); and to renew the affiliate status of the following eight organisations: the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE), the Agency for Higher Education of Republic of Srpska (AHERS, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Enhancing Quality in the Arts (EQ-Arts), Engineering Education by Research Universities (FIGURE), the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), the Malta Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA), Music Quality Enhancement (MusiQuE), and the Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (TKTA, Azerbaijan).