During the quarantine, it has become a good tradition for the National Agency to hold meetings with foreign colleagues online. On April 30, 2020, a meeting with the representatives of the Center for Quality Assessment in Higher Education (Lithuania) took place. The National Agency was represented by the chairman Serhiy Kvit, the deputy chairman Nataliia Stukalo and the leading specialist Albina Tsiatkovska. The Lithuanian agency was represented by director Almantas Šerpatauskas, deputy director Aurelija Valeikienė and other Lithuanian colleagues. The subject of the meeting was to discuss the processes of ensuring the quality of education in both Lithuania and Ukraine.
The Higher Education Quality Assessment Center (SKVC) is an independent public agency with a 25-year history. The Center implements the external policy of quality assurance in higher education in Lithuania and promotes the development of human resources by creating favourable conditions for their free movement.
The participants of the meeting shared their national experience in evaluating and accrediting educational programs. During the meeting, the parties has also discussed the important issue of institutional accreditation. In Lithuania it is interpreted to mean an external evaluation of a higher education institution aimed at enhancing the culture of quality and improvement of the provision of higher education, as well as establishing compliance with the requirements of Lithuanian legislation and the principles of the European Higher Education Area. The possibility of higher education institutions to independently accredit their own educational programs is not envisaged in Lithuania. As in most countries of the world this approach is not applied and the accreditation procedure is purely external.
To continue cooperation the parties have scheduled the next meeting between the agencies in May to broadly discuss topical issues of quality assurance in higher education.