The European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR) was established on the 4th of March 2008.
At the founding ceremony of the EQAR, the E4 presidents signed the statutes of the association. Commissioner Jan Figel from the European Commission and Vice-chair of the Bologna Follow-up Group, Germain Dondelinger, gave keynote speeches at the ceremony. All the speakers stressed the importance of the Register as a tool for transparency and mutual recognition in quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area. At the founding ceremony, the E4 (ENQA, ESU, EUA and EURASHE) accepted further members to the EQAR. The social partners of BFUG and the signatory countries of the European Cultural Convention can become members of the EQAR. The following social partners and countries joined the Association in the founding Assembly: Education International, BusinessEurope, Armenia, Austria, Belgium (Flemish Community), Belgium (French Community), Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Lichtenstein, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Ukraine.
The EQAR association establishes and manages the list of quality assurance agencies that comply with the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance. The decisions concerning the list of agencies (i.e. the register) are made by the Register Committee, which is elected by the General Assembly. The Register Committee is composed of independent experts nominated by the E4 Group, BusinessEurope, Education International, together with five government observers nominated by the BFUG. The nominated members, which were also approved by the Founding Assembly, are the following: Bryan McMahon, the Chair, Christoph Anz (nominated by BusinessEurope), Lucien Bollaert (nominated by EURASHE), Gintautas Braziunas (nominated by EURASHE), Eric Froment (nominated by EUA), Henrik Toft Jensen (nominated by EUA), Daire Keogh (nominated by Education International), Dorte Kristoffersen (nominated by ENQA), Mala Singh (nominated by ENQA), Tanel Sits (nominated by ESU) and Regina Weber (nominated by ESU). The Governmental Observers are: Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland and Portugal. The Founding Assembly also approved the Executive Board of the Association. The president of the executive board is Lesley Wilson (EUA), the vice chairs are Anne Mikkola (ESU) and Andreas Orhpanides (EURASHE), Emmi Helle (ENQA) awill act as treasurer.
The next general assembly will be held on the 25th June 2008 in Sarajevo in order to adopt the appeals procedure. More governments can join the association at that point. It is planned that the Register will be open for application at the end of summer.
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