UKÄ maintains its membership in ENQA

At a conference in Budapest on April 22-24, the ENQA Board reached the final decision to approve UKÄ's renewed membership in the association. Just a few weeks before, UKÄ recieved confirmation of its continued registration in EQAR – the official register of quality assurance agencies that comply with the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area. This closes the process for renewed membership in ENQA and registration in EQAR.

• ENQA is of great significance both for UKÄ and, above all, for Sweden as a knowledge nation and our reputation in the academic community. We share the quality assurance system with the higher education institutions, which means the entire system and the authority as a whole are evaluated," says UKÄ's Director General Martin Norsell.

UKÄ has been a member of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, ENQA, since 2020. Membership requires an external review every five years. The process to UKÄ's membership in ENQA began in 2024 when UKÄ's Director General Martin Norsell formally notified ENQA of the authority´s intent to undergo an external review. This initiated a comprehensive self-assessment process, during which UKÄ reflected on and enhanced its operations in accordance with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area, ESG 2015. This work resulted in a Self-Assessment Report (SAR) submitted to ENQA in February 2025. Subsequently, in May 2025, ENQA's review panel conducted the mandatory site visit at UKÄ, personnal, students, and other stakeholder groups.

The Waiting for Decision

During the period between October 2025 and April 2026, UKÄ's application has been prepered within EQAR and ENQA for formal decisions. Once the review panel´s report was validated by ENQA in the autumn of 2025, UKÄ could finilize its renewed membership in ENQA and registration in EQAR.
In December 2025, UKÄ applied for continued registration in EQAR. On March 22, the application approved, which enable UKÄ to apply for renewed in ENQA. During the conference in Budapest on April 22-24, the ENQA Board officially approved UKÄ's membership.

• It is of great importance that we at UKÄ are also evaluated regularly," emphasises UKÄ's Director General Martin Norsell. As someone put it, you sometimes have to "take your own medicine" to realize both the potential of a good quality system to enhance operations, and the burden it places on the organization being evaluated.

UKÄ is proud to note that the ENQA review panel concluded in its report that UKÄ complies with all the standards according to the ESG 2015. UKÄ will now proceed with addressing the feedback and recommendations highlighted in its report. This will be followed by a follow-up report to ENQA in the spring of 2028.

• The ENQA review confirms that we have a well-functioning quality assurance system and provides very valuable insights for our continous development work," says Head of Department Rikard Lingström.

Read the Board letter - membership reconfirmed. pdf, 209 kB.

Read EQAR's report Approval Decision. pdf, 230 kB.