HUNGARY: Quality on the conference agenda

Europe's top educational watchdogs were due in Budapest, Hungary late last week for the third annual International Trends in Quality Assurance conference. More than 500 higher education representatives, students, researchers in higher education and quality assurance specialists from across Europe and beyond gathered at Corvinus University of Budapest to discuss ways of better ensuring top grade education for all.

The conference was supported by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission and co-organised by the E4 group: the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), the European Students Union (ESU), the European University Association (EUA) and the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education (EURASHE).

The event was intended to examine and discuss trends and schemes designed to measure and reflect the quality of courses and study programmes and ask whether recent developments had led to an increase in levels of quality in higher education.

"Europe, like most other regions of the world, has the legitimate ambition to strengthen its higher education institutions, which are seen as central to the development of the knowledge society," the EUA said in a statement. "This aspiration has a wide range of implications, particularly for quality assurance."

More information about the conference is available at: www.eua.be

nick.holdsworth@uw-news.com