Your hosts

The General Assembly 2006 is organised by the Belgian full members of ENQA: NVAO in cooperation with VLHORA, VLIR and EUA. Please find more information about your hosts below:

NVAO, Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands & Flanders
VLHORA, Vlaamse Hogescholenraad
VLIR, Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad
EUA, the European University Association
AEQES, l'Agence pour l'Evaluation de la Qualité de l'Enseignement Supérieur

NVAO

The NVAO is the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium). The organisation was set up by international treaty by the governments of the Netherlands and Flanders. You can find more information about the NVAO below.

Although the governments of the Netherlands and Flanders fund the NVAO the organisation is totally independent in procedures, methodologies and decision-making. The NVAO is responsible for an area where 22 million people live. There are over 150 higher education institutions where almost one million students are enrolled.

Karl Dittrich, chairperson of the NVAO

The quality assurance system before the Bologna Declaration (signed in 1999) had a focus on programmes and was essentially an external assessment of a programme by an assessment panel (of peers). After the Bologna Declaration was signed the governements of the Netherlands and Flanders wished to increase the international transparency of its higher education. Furthermore, in the context of the new European bachelor and master qualifications a need arose to benchmark these new bachelor and master degrees.
The Netherlands and Flanders are among the most open economies in the world and in the light of the internationalisation of the labour market, the governments also wanted to internationally guarantee the quality of its higher education.

The Netherlands and Flanders therefore introduced programme accreditation and made accreditation a precondition for public funding, for the right to award officially recognised qualifications (diplomas) and for granting study finance to students (eg. grants, social services, ...).

Apart from its role as an accredition organisation, the NVAO plays a proactive role in higher education issues and policies. In the international arena, the NVAO sees itself as an active member of its 'umbrella' organisations: globally (INQAAHE), regionally (ENQA) and topically (ECA).

More information: http://www.nvao.net & http://www.highereducation.be

VLHORA

The VLHORA, the Vlaamse Hogescholenraad (Council of Flemish university colleges, www.vlhora.be), was established in 1996 and was awarded the statute of public utility institution by decree in 1998.
The VLHORA gives advice to the Flemish authorities on all policy aspects regarding college education, scientific project research, social services and the practice of the arts. Moreover the VLHORA organises and stimulates consultation between the institutions on all issues related to the university colleges.

VLIR

The Flemish University Council (VLIR, www.vlir.be) is an autonomous council, funded by the universities. The VLIR advices and makes recommendations to the ministers responsible for university education and science.
Additionally, the VLIR organises the coordination of quality assurance and accreditation, educational policy, research policy and university management.

EUA

The European University Association (EUA, www.eua.be), as the representative organisation of both the European universities and the national rectors' conferences, is the main voice of the higher education community in Europe.
EUA's mission is to promote the development of a coherent system of European higher education and research. EUA aims to achieve this through active support and guidance to its members as autonomous institutions in enhancing the quality of their teaching, learning and research as well as their contributions to society.

AEQES

Agence pour l'Evaluation de la Qualité de l'Enseignement Supérieur (AEQES, www.aeqes.be) is responsible for the quality assessment procedures in higher education in the French Community of Belgium. The focus of the quality assessment are the programmes offered by the universities, university colleges, art colleges, architecture institutions and institutions offering programmes for social progression. The procedures of AEQES do not include instutional accreditation or course assessment.
The aim of AEQES is to progressively improve the quality of education by making good practices, bad practices and problems visible.