AEQES is an independent public sector agency, practising formative evaluation based on a dialogue between all stakeholders within the French Community. Fully embedded in the European context, the Agency is responsible for assessing the quality of higher education and working for its continuous improvement.
The Agency autonomously develops its procedures used for assessing the quality of teaching in bachelor and masters programmes in the institutions authorised by the French Community. It establishes an evaluation-plan on a 10-year basis, monitoring an appropriate group of programmes with the aim of fostering the alignment of programme profiles and objectives with the missions of the institutions involved, disseminating good practice and promoting synergies.
The Agency organises evaluation and follow-up procedures in line with its code of ethics. It selects its experts, informs them of their mission and its context and ensures that they can carry out their work in complete independence.
The Agency provides information on the quality of higher education by publishing on its website the review reports, the system-wide analyses and the follow-up action plans, and highlighting best practice. It provides the heads of the institutions reviewed and the Government with proposals on ways of enhancing quality.
The Agency, through its broad-based participative structure, remains in permanent dialogue with stakeholders. It takes any initiative deemed fit for accomplishing its duties, updating its procedures on the basis of experience gained.
Its participation in international bodies and events for quality assurance in higher education are also to be seen in the context of the Agency as a learning organisation.
By basing all its working procedures on the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG), by working together with other agencies or bodies in other countries, and by disseminating information on European developments in higher education, the Agency can be seen as being a part of an overall European process.
