QA Reports of Turkish Universities Are Now Available in the EQAR Database

The Turkish Higher Education Quality Council (THEQC), which aims to increase the international competitiveness of universities in Türkiye, rapidly continues its quality assurance works in higher education.

For this purpose, “Institutional External Evaluation” and “Institutional Accreditation” reports, written by THEQC evaluation teams after the evaluation of higher education institutions, have been started to be published in the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) database.

Prof. Ümit Kocabıçak, THEQC President, gave information on the subject and stated that THEQC completed its EQAR registration, which is one of the crucial steps for the Bologna Process, on 3 March 2023, and continues its work to increase the international visibility of universities in Türkiye in the field of quality assurance in higher education.

Stating that the institution responsible for quality assurance in higher education in Türkiye is THEQC, President Kocabıçak continued his words, “With THEQC’s EQAR registration, reports on THEQC’s institutional external evaluation and institutional accreditation activities will now be included in the EQAR database (DEQAR). As a result of this work, the reports of the evaluation processes completed after EQAR registration have been started to be uploaded to DEQAR. In 2022, the evaluation reports of 30 universities evaluated in the Institutional Accreditation Program and three universities in the Institutional External Evaluation Program were made accessible in DEQAR. The published reports are planned to be added to the system in English as well as Turkish in the future.”

Pointing out that thanks to the EQAR registration, the status of the Turkish Higher Education System in the Bologna Progress Reports has been further strengthened, Prof. Kocabıçak said, “The Turkish Higher Education System has thus risen to the level of ‘full compliance with the European Quality Assurance Standards and Guidelines (ESG)’, which is the highest level of compliance indicators of the development stage of the external quality assurance system in the reports.”

Emphasizing that the publication of the reports in DEQAR will be beneficial for universities, academics and researchers in Türkiye, Kocabıçak said, “Many stakeholders such as quality assurance agencies, students, recognition information centres and official institutions will be able to benefit from this database in the recognition of universities and programs. Through this database, EQAR will contribute to the transparency of external quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area. We expect the system to play an important role in the future, especially in supporting decisions such as recognition of degrees, mobility of students, and portability of grants and loans.”

About EQAR

EQAR stands for the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education. All institutions in the European higher education area are subject to regular external evaluation by quality assurance agencies. The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) constitute the basis for the external evaluation. EQAR is the official register body of quality assurance agencies operating in the European higher education area in full compliance with the ESG.