Work in progress
The work of ECA is mainly carried out by separate so-called working parties. Each of these working parties usually consists of representatives of ECA member agencies, external project partners, observers and/or invited experts.
Most pages of the working party websites are only accessible for members of that particular working party. Participants from one working party can however have access to other working parties if their activities in some way overlap.
You can find ECA's overall work plan for the 4 ECA working groups here.
Management Group
The accreditation agencies appoint the members of the Management Group of ECA. The Management Group has the task to prepare ECA meetings and other Consortium activities, to oversee the Working groups and their activities, to approve the financial statements and conclusions of the plenary meetings and to make recommendations to the members of ECA on the admission of new members.
Working Group 1: Mutual recognition & joint programmes
This working group deals with all issues that contribute to achieving agreements on the mutual recognition of accreditation decisions. This includes the extraordinary position of joint programmes in the European Higher Education Area, and ECA's JOQAR project.
Working Group 2: Institutional accreditation & audits
This working group deals with institutional accreditation & audits.
It also focuses on: the training of experts and staff (E-TRAIN project); impact of QA; private HEIs, size of HEIs and accreditation; and the QA of internationalisation.
Working Group 3: Qrossroads & information strategies
This working group focuses on information strategies. This mainly refers to the way accreditation agencies communicate results. This working group is therefore responsible for further development of Qrossroads. Additionally, it supports the development of a European expert portfolio, and the creation of knowledge bases on experts (E-TRAIN project) and joint programmes (JOQAR project).
Working Group 4: Mutual learning & best practices
Working Group 4 currently focuses on learning outcomes and its inclusion in quality assurance procedures. The working group is working on a compendium of good practices regarding learning outcomes in accreditation procedures, in general and in specific contexts.
Qrossroads Administrators
This group brings together the people of QA agencies responsible for the administration of information regarding accredited programmes and/or institutions. This can be either on a policy level or on a IT level.
Working parties
Here are the quick links to ECA's working parties (only accessible for members):