Where to Find Country Information on Quality Assurance in European Higher Education

EQAR's Knowledge base is the place to start. It describes the national quality assurance (QA) frameworks of the countries in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and collects other information on QA in Europe, so it works as a single entry point for comparing how QA is organised from one country to another. You reach it from the EQAR website (eqar.eu) under "Knowledge base".

What the Knowledge base covers

• Country information — descriptions of how each EHEA country's national QA framework is set up.
• Other information on QA in Europe — additional material on quality assurance beyond the individual country pages.

Because the country descriptions follow a common EHEA-wide reference point, they are useful when you want to compare systems rather than read about one country in isolation.

The framework behind the country information

The common framework that the country information refers to is the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the EHEA (ESG). Higher education in the EHEA is subject to regular external review by a quality assurance agency (QAA), and the ESG is the agreed common framework for those QA systems. EQAR is the EHEA's official register of QAAs, listing those that substantially comply with the ESG.

That matters for reading country information: when a country page describes its national QA framework, the ESG is the benchmark the arrangements are measured against.

How to use it

1. Go to eqar.eu and open the Knowledge base.
2. Select the country you need.
3. Read the description of its national QA framework, then use the other QA-in-Europe material for context.

If your question is about a specific agency rather than a country, use the Register of trustworthy quality assurance agencies in the EHEA instead. If you need evidence of external quality assurance of particular institutions or programmes, use DEQAR, EQAR's database of higher education institutions and programmes that have been subject to external quality assurance, with access to the corresponding reports.

What you can and cannot conclude

The Knowledge base tells you how national QA frameworks are organised and how they relate to the ESG. It is a description of frameworks, not a ranking of countries or institutions. For judgements about a specific institution or programme, follow the link to the relevant external quality assurance reports rather than relying on the country description alone.

Related EQAR resources