Statement of the National Center for Quality Assurance in Education

GTU Offer the Statement of the National Center for Quality Assurance in Education Unchanged:

„We want to provide the public with information about the membership status of ENQA and EQAR.

As you know, the National Center for Quality Assurance in Education is a full member of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) and is also registered in the European Register of Independent Agencies for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (EQAR).

To renew the membership status of ENQA and EQAR, a visit of international experts was carried out in Tbilisi in October 2023. According to the conclusion of the expert group (the document is publicly available) on the ENQA and the Center’s websites.

The National Centre for Quality Assurance in Education was assessed as fully compliant with the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ESG 2015) in 11 standards and partially compliant with 2 standards.

According to the ENQA experts’ conclusion, the Centre was not assessed as non-compliant with any of the standards. It should also be noted that the National Centre for Quality Assurance in Education was identified as having best practices regarding the implementation of 5 standards.

After receiving the conclusion of the ENQA experts, the Center applied to EQAR for the registration renewal, the decision of which has not been submitted to the Center at this stage. However, according to preliminary, unofficial data, the European Register of Independent Agencies for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (EQAR), based on the shortcoming in 2023, decided to suspend the Center registration.

We would like to clarify that the mentioned shortcoming has already been eliminated, and we have made the relevant amendments to the legislation in advance. Accordingly, we hope that the EQAR decision is temporary.

In addition, after the conclusion of official receipt, the Center will appeal the aforementioned decision, as we would like to reiterate that all the major shortcomings that the EQAR Committee members may have questions about have already been eliminated and corrected.

Additionally, we would like to inform you that ENQA membership and registration in EQAR are not related to the recognition of diplomas issued in Georgia. Even before obtaining membership in the aforementioned organizations, until 2019, diplomas issued in Georgia were recognized without any delays, both in the EU member states and in any other country.

As for the recognition of the center by the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME), it is in no way related to ENQA membership or registration with EQAR, as the center gained WFME recognition in 2018, and full ENQA member status and registration with EQAR were achieved in 2019.

In addition, the majority of agencies with WFME recognition are neither ENQA member organizations nor registered with EQAR“.