On October 21, 2022, a progress visit took place at ANACEC, which was the last activity within the project Supporting European QA Agencies in meeting the ESG (SEQA-ESG). The visit was attended by Ghițulica Cristina, Vice President of ENQA (The European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education), Colin Tück, EQAR Director (The European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education), Alexis Fábregas, ENQA Project officer and representatives of ANACEC and the Ministry of Education and Research. Several important topics were addressed during the meeting, such as the role of external quality assurance and its compliance with the Standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) for Moldovan HE and QA systems, challenges from the perspective of the national legal framework in reaching such compliance, and operational aspects of ANACEC. The meeting touched upon the Agency’s organizational and operational independence as well.

The main objective of the SEQA-ESG project is to support quality assurance agencies and national authorities in six countries, including the Republic of Moldova, in creating an ESG-compliant quality assurance system, which is one of the key commitments of the Bologna Process.

Within the project, several activities were already carried out by ENQA experts related to the understanding of the requirements of the above mentioned standards, the need to align the legal framework and quality assurance processes with the ESG, the connection of the ESG of the national criteria, as well as on understanding methods and criteria for involvement of expert evaluators and stakeholders in external quality assurance activities.

In order to achieve these goals, ANACEC, together with various representatives of the interested parties - the Ministry of Education and Research, the Council of Rectors, the academic environment, students, employers, the Governing Board, the Profile Committee in Higher Education – has developed and is implementing the „National action plan on quality assurance of higher education in the Republic of Moldova for period 2021-2023” and the „Action plan for the external review of the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Education and Research”. A part of the latter is the final objective for ANACEC, i.e., to become an ENQA member and register in EQAR. The review process is scheduled for spring 2023.