UKÄ’s self-assessment report for the upcoming ENQA agency review has now been approved by Director General Martin Norsell and submitted to ENQA. This marks the beginning of the external review process for UKÄ’s application for renewed membership of ENQA and registration on EQAR.

UKÄ’s self-assessment report demonstrates that the agency conducts external quality assurance in compliance with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area, the ESG. The report has been prepared in line with the guidelines for ENQA Agency Reviews.

The self-assessment report is the result of dedicated efforts by UKÄ’s staff and its stakeholders. The comprehensive self-assessment process itself has already contributed to internal learning and organisational development, which shows the importance of periodical external assessment.

– ENQA’s review of UKÄ comes at a very timely moment, as we have been working strategically to improve coordination across our activities. Coordinated and resource-efficient operations are crucial for delivering results that benefit the higher education sector without increasing the administrative burden on universities, says UKÄ’s Director General, Martin Norsell.

UKÄ aims to integrate better its activities within quality assurance, legal supervision, statistics, and analysis — areas that all contribute to enhancing the quality of higher education and research. In the current review process, however, only quality assurance is within the scope of the ESG. Since the previous ENQA review in 2020, significant progress has been made in this area, aligning with UKÄ’s goal of being the acknowledged source of information about higher education and research, as well as generating results that support the sector’s development.

UKÄ has recently undertaken a revision of its national quality assurance framework, in response to recommendations from the previous expert panel, other external and internal evaluations, as well as continuous feedback from higher education institutions, students, and other stakeholders.

– We know from the last ENQA review that the national quality assurance framework meets the ESG requirements, emphasises Rikard Lingström, Head of the Department of Quality Assurance. Now that we have further developed our methodology over the past few intensive years, it is important to receive feedback from ENQA’s peer-review experts on how well we have succeeded in making our reviews more accurate, flexible, and resource-efficient.

ENQA site visit

Now that UKÄ has submitted its self-assessment report to ENQA, a review panel of European experts will visit UKÄ in May. Based on the panel’s assessment of the report, interviews conducted during the site visit, and supplementary documentation, UKÄ will apply for renewed membership of ENQA and registration on EQAR.

– Submitting UKÄ’s self-assessment to ENQA is a key milestone in the review process, affirms Ulf Hedbjörk, coordinator of the application process within UKÄ. We now look forward to welcoming ENQA’s review panel for the site visit in May!

Read the report UKÄ Self-Assessment Report for ENQA Agency Review 2025 Pdf, 2 MB..