Another week and another meeting with foreign colleagues – this time with Swedish quality assurance experts. On May 15, 2020, NAQA Head Serhiy Kvit, Vice-Head Nataliia Stukalo, NAQA Member Iryna Zolotaryova and International Project Manager Albina Tsiatkovska met online with Lennart Ståhle, Higher Education Expert, Former Head of Swedish Higher Education Authority and Victor Kordas, Senior Project Manager, KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
During the meeting, the participants discussed the most hot-topic issues in the field of higher education quality assurance. The NAQA got the opportunity to learn about the experience and the best practices of Sweden, to present the national system of higher education quality assurance.
The higher education quality assurance in Sweden is focused on the accreditation of educational programmes. Institutional accreditation in this country is not provided. The attention is focused on the internal quality assurance systems of higher education institutions. The Universities take full responsibility for the proper functioning of internal QA systems, however, every 5-6 years they undergo an external evaluation, and the approach is extremely serious.
There was a very fruitful and meaningful discussion. It is valuable and important that during meetings in such format the NAQA receives an external independent expert viewpoint on its activities and processes in addition to establishing international cooperation. It helps to shape the NAQA approach to the higher education QA in Ukraine in better way, to take into account international experience and at the same time to build its own QA model and not to lose its identity.