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ESU has taken a major step into the world of quality assurance by completing an evaluation of the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance (QA) in higher education, ARACIS, which was established in 2005 to take forward the work begun by its predecessor, the CNEAA.
The evaluation was carried out between June-September 2008 by three student experts nominated by ESU: 1. Koen Geven, a student of political science at the University of Amsterdam, and former project leader for quality assurance in the Dutch National Union of Students (LSVb), former member of the executive of LSVb and former chairperson of ESU; 2. Katja Kamsek, a student of pharmacy at the University of Ljubljana, trainer in quality assurance, former president of the international committee of the Slovenian Student Union, former member of ESU’s executive committee; 3. Viorel Proteasa, a student of Business Administration at the West University of Timisoara, former President of the Romanian National Union of Students (ANOSR) and former member of ESU’s executive committee.
The two key objectives of the evaluation were to assess the following:
- The quality assurance experience that had been accrued by ARACIS' predecessor, CNEAA, and the improvements brought about by ARACIS, through an examination of its new procedures and methodologies, particularly those relating to students and their results.
- The compliance of the agency with European Standards and Guidelines (ESG).
Through this ARACIS evaluation, ESU has moved into a new field and established itself as a key player in the field of quality assurance in higher education, as this evaluation has been carried out entirely by students. Student involvement in quality assurance procedures at the national, institutional and programme/department level is demanded as part of the Bologna Process, and in particular by the ESG. As the main student representative organisation in Europe, ESU is receiving more and more requests to provide student experts to ensure independent and internationally recognised student assessment . ESU has already established a good partnership with the European Association for Quality Assurance in Europe (ENQA), the European University Association for their Institutional Evaluation Programme as well as several national QA agencies.
ARACIS has previously been evaluated also by the European University Association, and will also undergo an evaluation by ENQA in February 2009.
The full text of the report can be found here.
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