The Flemish Community successfully applied for EU funding of the project “Developing a European Approach for Comprehensive QA of (European) University Networks” (EUniQ). The EUniQ project is coordinated by NVAO on behalf of the Flemish Community. The project consortium comprises eight quality assurance (QA) agencies, six ministries and the European stakeholders organisations EUA, ESU and ENQA.

These partners will develop, in close cooperation with European Universities, a QA approach for European Universities. The QA approach will be geared towards the special multi-campuses features and comprehensive missions of these new alliances. This approach should be truly European, enabling the replacement of multiple national QA procedures that are not suitable for assessing the quality of these European alliances. The principles of the European Approach for QA of Joint Programmes can serve as an inspiration in this regard.

The developed QA framework will be tested through four pilot assessments of European Universities. During the course of the project the results will be shared with the Bologna Peer Support Group on Quality Assurance, thereby enabling peer learning and enhancing support from national authorities for the European Approach.

Th EUniQ project has been developed in the framework of the Peer Support Group on QA of the Bologna Coordination and Implementation Group. It takes up one of the three key commitments included in the Paris Communique: quality assurance in compliance with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area. The project will feed into the work of the Bologna Implementation Coordination Group by fully integrating the project activities into the work and schedule of the Peer Support Group on QA.

The project runs from May 2019 until May 2021 and receives a maximum grant of EUR 195.269,60 under the EU Erasmus+ programme for the action “Support to the implementation of European Higher Education Area (EHEA) Reforms”.