Prof. Muhsin Kar, THEQC President, Attends the 8th Eurasian Higher Education Summit (EURIE)

The Eurasian Universities Union (EURAS) organised the 8th Eurasian Higher Education Summit (EURIE) at İstanbul Lütfi Kırdar Congress Center this year, with the attendance of Prof. Muhsin Kar, the President of the Turkish Higher Education Quality Council (THEQC).

There were several high-level participants in the Summit held between 1-3 March 2023 with over 200 institutions from 72 countries, including Mustafa Varank, Minister of Industry and Technology; Mehmet Muş, Minister of Trade; Mehmet M. Kasapoğlu, Minister of Youth and Sports; and Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs, who attended the opening ceremony via video messages.

President Kar delivered a speech at the Summit, which aimed to continue to introduce the Turkish higher education sector to the world and increase academic cooperation by making it a centre of attraction in this sector, and noted that he regarded the Summit as an important event, especially to understand, detect and discuss the trends in higher education and create a shared understanding for the future with the attendance of the universities’ governing bodies, students, academic staff, and business representatives.

President Kar made a presentation on “Quality and Accreditation Practices and Experience of THEQC in Türkiye” at the panel “The Emerging Value of Quality Assurance and Accreditation for Higher Education Institutions.” In his presentation, President Kar pointed out that higher education institutions should have a robust and functioning quality assurance system based on continuous improvement understanding by informing the audience of THEQC’s activities and institutional evaluation processes. Giving information about the Institutional Accreditation Program carried out by THEQC for Turkish higher education institutions since 2020, President Kar added that THEQC aimed to evaluate all Turkish higher education institutions until 2027 in the scope of the Institutional Accreditation Program that was started with eleven universities in 2020.

In EURIE 2023, where 57 panels were held for three days under different topics, the first panel was “The Role of Higher Education in Disaster Management”, in which expert academics from all over the world discussed disaster management in it. The Summit continued with several panels and workshops with titles such as “The Netherlands Experience in the QA Process”, “QA & Accreditation: AQAS Perspectives and Practices”, “International Education Leadership and Change Management”, “International Education Hubs”, “International Student Support”, “Digitalization”, “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion”, and “Sustainability and Quality Assurance”.