Now published: African Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance of Higher Education
07 January 2019
The European Union and African Union Commissions have announced the publication of the African Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ASG-QA), under the Harmonisation of African Higher Education Quality Assurance and Accreditation (HAQAA) Initiative. EUA has been pleased to be part of the consortium in charge of implementing the Initiative together with the University of Barcelona (Coordinator), the Association of African Universities (AAU), the European Network for Quality Assurance (ENQA) and the DAAD.
The ASG-QA provide an overarching framework for quality assurance in higher education. Developed by a Technical Working Group of African experts, with the support of European partners, they are the result of extensive consultations of higher education institutions and quality assurance agencies, as well as ministries in Africa, regional bodies and student representatives. They are premised on existing standards and guidelines in different African countries and regions, as well as benchmarked globally. This will promote and facilitate mutual trust between higher education agencies, regulatory bodies and institutions, transparency and accountability, and facilitate the recognition and mobility of students and human resources within and across national borders of the continent and with Europe.
The ASG-QA will be submitted to the African Union in 2019 for a more formal political endorsement but will already be used by universities and regulatory bodies within the next phase of the HAQAA Initiative, which is due to start in 2019.
The standards are available in the four languages of the African Union: French, English, Arabic and Portuguese.
