News 9 February 2023 10.52

UKÄ submits follow-up report on ENQA Agency Review

UKÄ recently submitted a follow-up report to the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) in response to the recommendations of the ENQA Agency Review 2020.

The follow-up report describes measures taken by UKÄ in response to the review panel’s recommendations, seconded by the ENQA Board.

Read the report: Follow-up report - The Swedish Higher Education Authority's (UKÄ) response to ENQA's recommendations Pdf, 373 kB.

A central recommendation from ENQA was for UKÄ to go further in reducing the higher education institutions’ workload in the agency’s quality assurance activities. UKÄ should consider to which extent the different activities could be integrated or complement each other better. This was an important point of departure for the ongoing comprehensive revision of the national quality assurance framework, initiated by UKÄ in 2021.

In line with this recommendation, the number of assessment areas and criteria in UKÄ’s external quality assurance activities are currently being reduced, as well as the level of detail. UKÄ is developing a model with a common assessment ’core’, which aims to take into account the HEI’s profile and internal quality work, allowing for greater flexibility and reduced workload on the HEI.

A further choice made by UKÄ is to abandon the previous more or less fixed six-year review cycle concept, in favour of a more flexible and adjustable rolling plan and continuous quality review.

- We firmly believe that the revisions to the national quality assurance framework described in the follow-up report, aiming at more integrated and complementary external quality assurance activities, will contribute to minimising workload and overlap, and to maximising accuracy, impact, and quality enhancement, says Ulf Hedbjörk, author of the report.

In March 2023, UKÄ will welcome the original assessment panel’s chair and secretary for an ENQA Progress Visit. This is an opportunity for the agency to receive further peer feedback on its ongoing development work and priorities.

In March 2021, UKÄ was also included on the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR), and the agency’s decisions and assessment reports are regularly published in the database DEQAR. In addition, the Government is currently in the process of applying for governmental membership of EQAR.

Contact: Ulf Hedbjörk, ulf.hedbjork@uka.se

In 2020, UKÄ was reviewed against the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG 2015). The external review panel appointed by ENQA found that UKÄ was fully compliant with most of the areas in the ESG. In December 2020, the Board of ENQA took the decision to grant UKÄ membership of ENQA.

This page was last updated 24 October 2023