In November 2014, ACA and its German member DAAD kicked off a joint study entitled University quality indicators: A critical assessment for the European Parliament. The study, to be carried out in a framework contract between the ACA-DAAD consortium and the European Parliament, aims to critically assess the differences between quality assurance systems and university ranking schemes, and the pros and cons of the two distinct approaches for assessing/enhancing/indicating the quality of university teaching and research. Based on the results of the study, policy recommendations will be made to the EU’s policymakers for the further development of transparent quality assessment and assurance systems in Europe and of the U-Multirank which has been funded by the European Commission.      

An expert team involving the following has been set up to carry out this short-term study: Bernd Wächter (ACA Director), Queenie Lam-Schöch (ACA Project Manager), Maria Kelo (former ACA staff and currently Director of European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education – ENQA), Christoph Jost (Head of Consultancy Section, DAAD), Philipp Effertz (Researcher, Consultancy Section, DAAD). Additionally, the team will be supported by two external advisors: Professor Ellen Hazelkorn (Director of Research and Enterprise, and Dean of the Graduate Research School, Dublin Institute of Technology) and Dr Achim Hopbach (Managing Director of the Austrian Quality Assurance Agency and former president of ENQA). The two external experts who will advise the team on issues related to university rankings and quality assurance respectively.   

The present project is expected to be completed in May 2015. ACA Director Bernd Wächter is responsible for the oversight of the content production, whereas DAAD’s Christoph Jost is in charge of the management of the project. In the same framework contract with the European Parliament, ACA and DAAD have provided the European Parliament with a briefing note on the EU Commission’s then Erasmus for All proposal (Spring, 2012) and a briefing note on The Bologna Process: Stocktaking and Prospects (Winter, 2010).