On 7th and 8th July 2011 an international panel paid a visit to the Agency for Science and Higher Education as part of the international external assessment.
Based on the assessment it will be decided whether the ASHE fulfills the conditions for the full-term membeship in the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA). The coordinator of the external assessment is, pursuant to the decision by the ENQA management board, the Spanish Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education and Research of Andalusia (Agencia Andaluza de Evaluación de la Calidad y Acreditación Universitaria – AGAE).
During the two-day visit, the panel held meetings with the management and ASHE employees, the Croatian higher education institutions’ representatives, foreign and home experts – the panel members in the procedures of reacreditation of higher education institutions and thematic assessment of public scientific institutes as well as with all other stakeholders from the higher education and science system – the representatives of four Croatian student unions, the relevant ministry, strategic bodies, business subjects, etc. All in all, meetings were held with over 50 persons from various institutions.
Within the four-week period following the visit, the Panel is obliged to submit the first version of the report to the Agency, and the Agency may provide its comments to the facts stated in the report.
As part of the preparations for the international extrenal assessment, the Agency has created the Self-evaluation in the previous period, in which all relevant information which are necessary in order to understand the context in which the Agency works and its activies are procedures summed up. The ASHE’s Self-evaluation is a public document and it was sent to the Spanish Spanish Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education and Research which coordinates the external assessment of ASHE.
Joining the ENQA is a confirmatino of a reliability of ASHE’s actions and it will have a positive influence on enhancing the mobilty by the teaching staff, scientists and students. It is expected to become an incentive to the international recognition of the quality of work at the Croatian higher education institutions and scientific organizations as well as the visible positioning of the Croatian higher education at the international level.
The international panel members:
Seamus Puirseil – the president of the Panel, former president of the Irish Higher Education and Training Awards Council and former ENQA vicepresident,
Domingo Do Campo, former rector of the Universida de Vigo and an officer in several Spanish agencies and state bodies, today the president of the Agency ACSUCYL,
Kurt Sohm, the representative of the Fachhochschulrat, ENQA,
María Cristina Pastor Varcálcel, a student,
Janja Komljenovič – secretary of the Panel, Center for Educational Policy Studies, Slovenian Ministry of Science.