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EnglishWhat is EQAR (European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education)?
Updated
EQAR is the European Higher Education Area's official register of quality assurance agencies. It lists agencies that substantially comply with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the EHEA (ESG), and it backs that register with two further resources: a database of quality assurance results (DEQAR) and a knowledge base on national QA frameworks. It is useful if you need to check whether an agency is trustworthy, find external review reports on a specific institution or programme, or understand how quality assurance works in a given EHEA country.
What EQAR actually does
Higher education across the EHEA is subject to regular external review by a quality assurance agency (QAA). The common framework those reviews follow is the ESG. EQAR's role is to maintain the official list of QAAs that substantially comply with the ESG — so the Register functions as a trust signal rather than a ranking.
The site describes its purpose as providing "reliable information on quality of European higher education and its assurance," organised around three things you can look up.
The three resources
| Resource | What it contains | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Register | Trustworthy quality assurance agencies in the EHEA | You want to confirm an agency is ESG-compliant |
| Database (DEQAR) | Higher education institutions and programmes that have undergone external quality assurance, with access to the corresponding reports | You want evidence of review outcomes for a specific institution or programme |
| Knowledge base | Country information describing national QA frameworks of EHEA countries, plus other info on QA in Europe | You need to understand how QA is organised in a particular country |
As of the site's current figures, the database holds 134,243 reports covering 5,192 institutions.
Who it is for
- Students and families checking whether a programme's quality assurance is credible.
- Institutions looking for an agency whose review will be recognised across the EHEA.
- Agencies considering applying for registration.
- Policy and research audiences comparing national QA frameworks.
How registration works
Agencies do not self-declare onto the Register. They apply for registration, and EQAR's Register Committee decides on inclusion. The Committee meets periodically — the site lists autumn and summer meetings with published decisions — so registration status changes on a meeting cycle rather than continuously.
If you are an agency, the entry point is the "Apply for registration" route. If you are checking an agency, the Register itself is the authoritative list.
Practical notes
- EQAR covers the European Higher Education Area, not the EU alone — the two are not the same grouping.
- Registration means substantial ESG compliance; it is not a ranking of agencies or of institutions.
- DEQAR links to actual review reports, so you can read the evidence rather than rely on a summary.
- The site also runs projects and publishes a newsletter (about four issues per year) covering new agencies, policy developments, and how EQAR is used in national QA frameworks.
Quick answers
Is EQAR an accreditor? No. It registers the agencies that do the reviewing; it does not accredit institutions itself.
Can I find a specific university there? Yes, if that institution has been subject to external quality assurance, its record and reports should appear in DEQAR.
Where do I start? Use the Register to check an agency, DEQAR to check an institution or programme, and the knowledge base to understand a country's system.