Targeted reviews
About targeted reviews
Developed jointly with EQAR, ENQA provides QA agencies an ESG review that focuses on the agencies’ remaining challenges in reaching compliance with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG), while at the same time further strengthening the enhancement aspect of the review, thus offering more resource-mindful review process. Targeted reviews against the ESG are designed to result in the same type of decision on agencies’ renewal of membership in ENQA or registration in EQAR as a full review.
The targeted review will cover standards that were found partially compliant during the agency’s last review, ESG 2.1, and on standards that could have been affected by recent substantive changes (e.g., organisational changes, the launch of new external QA activities). The targeted review also includes an enhancement element; the agency will be expected to reflect on one other ESG as part of the self-selected enhancement area.
“The principal aim of a targeted review is to provide the agencies that have successfully undergone at least two full ESG reviews with an alternative way to assessing their compliance with the ESG.”
Focus areas
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Focus areas |
Refers to |
Applicability and compliance assessment |
|
All the standards with a ‘partial compliance’ conclusion in the EQAR Register Committee’s last renewal decision; or in ENQA’s review report, and if applicable, in the Agency Review Committee’s validation statement ot the ENQA Board’s membership decision letter (relevant only for agencies that are not registered in EQAR). |
All external QA activities |
Applicable to all and graded |
|
ESG 2.1 |
All external QA activities |
Applicable to all and graded |
|
Enhancement area selected from among standards of Part 2 or 3 of the ESG (see section 2.1) |
All external QA activities |
Applicable to all but not graded |
|
Standards 2.2 to 2.7 |
Only those external QA activities that were newly launched or changed since the agency’s last full review against the ESG |
If the case and graded (the grade applies exclusively to the new or changed activity) |
|
Any standards affected by other substantive changes |
All external QA activities |
If the case and graded |
|
Any other matters regarding ESG compliance that come up during the targeted review. |
All external QA activities |
If the case and graded |
Eligibility
The targeted review is open to all ENQA member agencies wishing to renew their membership who have been through at least two full ESG reviews, and a targeted review can be used as an alternative to a full review every ten years (with a full ESG review in between, five years after a targeted review). The procedure is available for all EQAR-registered agencies that have had at least two consecutive external reviews against the ESG that led to a registration/renewal decision by the EQAR Register Committee before engaging in the targeted review (more details are available here).
Fees
The fee for an agency review coordinated by ENQA (full, targeted, or focused) is published here and includes a detailed breakdown of costs.
Further information
Further information on targeted reviews is also available on EQAR’s website.