UNESCO Regional Consultation Meeting for Eastern Europe “The role of quality assurance in higher education: challenges, developments and trends” was held on 23 – 24 April 2018 in Moscow, Russian Federation.
The event was organized by UNESCO, the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE), Federal State Budget Agency “National Accreditation Agency”, Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education and Career Development (AKKORK) with the support of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA).
During the Meeting participants discussed such issues as identification of major opportunities and challenges to the development of quality assurance in higher education in the region; the role of higher education and quality assurance in sustainable development; design of strategies for engaging governments, quality assurance bodies, higher education institutions and other stakeholders in order to enhance the quality assurance system and enable it to respond to changing needs and transformations. The participants exchanged experience and good quality assurance practices in the region and beyond.
The key report “The role of quality assurance in higher education: challenges, developments and trends” was delivered by Peter Wells, Chief of Higher Education Section (UNESCO, Paris). Svetlana Knyazeva, Chief of the Unit of Digital Pedagogy and Learning Materials at UNESCO IITE also participated in the meeting and delivered the presentation “Quality assurance in open online education: open educational resources and massive open online courses”.
Representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, major international quality assurance agencies, leading higher education institutions, companies and other stakeholders dealing with the various facets of quality in higher education were also invited to participate in the Meeting.
The Regional Meeting generated great interest among the participants, demonstrated unity of views on existing problems and challenges in higher education, and set the priorities for the development of the quality assurance in the system of education. Definition of the main tasks in the quality assurance of higher education for the future and its sustainable development in the global context became the outcomes of the meeting.
The Regional Consultation Meeting for Eastern Europe was organized in preparation for the UNESCO International Conference on Quality Assurance in Higher Education which will take place in Paris in November 2018.