Internal Quality Assurance Assessing Impact: Using External Reviews and Evaluations in Internal Quality Assurance

This report is the outcome of the seminar held in Valladolid on June 7-8, 2012 entitled “Assessing impact – Using external reviews and evaluations for internal learning”. Prior to the seminar, the IQA Steering Group – Douglas Blackstock (Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education – QAA), Matti Kajaste (Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council – FINHEEC), Christian Moldt (Danish Evaluation Institute – EVA), Sandra Marcos Ortega (Quality Assurance Agency for the University System in Castilla y León – ACSUCYL) and Maiki Udam (Estonian Higher Education Quality Agency – EKKA) – conducted a survey among 42 full members of ENQA in November 2011. The survey comprised three parts: the description of IQA activities at agencies, the impact of ENQA external reviews on the agencies’ IQA systems, and the assessment of impact of external agencies’ reviews on higher education institutions. A total of 25 agencies responded, yielding a response rate of 60 per cent. This publication presents the results of the survey and summarises the discussions at the seminar, including some ideas and thoughts for future IQA activities.