The European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) has published information on the public consultation to collect feedback on the draft 2027 version of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG).
This public consultation is part of the mandate given at the Ministerial Conference of the European Higher Education Area, held in May 2024, where ministers requested the authors of the ESG to prepare a new version of the document.
To this end, the organisations that authored the ESG set up a dedicated steering committee responsible for drafting the revision proposal, which is expected to be approved at the next Ministerial Conference of the EHEA in May 2027.
The committee has now published a first full draft of ESG 2027 and is inviting comments from all stakeholders in the European Higher Education Area: universities, quality assurance agencies, institutional leaders, academic staff, students and other actors from the social and economic environment.
What is being consulted and how to participate?
The aim of this public consultation is to gather observations on the text of the draft ESG 2027, which updates the currently applicable standards and guidelines (ESG 2015) in order to adapt them to the current challenges of European higher education.
Contributions must be submitted through the online form provided by ENQA, which allows:
- Comments on different sections of the document.
- General observations on the ESG 2027 as a whole.
The deadline for responding ends on 9 January 2026.
All information on the public consultation, as well as access to the form and related documents (full draft, explanatory note, etc.), is available on ENQA’s website at the following link: https://www.enqa.eu/esg-standards-and-guidelines-for-quality-assurance-in-the-european-higher-education-area/#revision
The ESG provide the common European framework for internal and external quality assurance in higher education. Their revision will have a direct impact on:
- The organisation of internal quality assurance systems in universities.
- Evaluation and accreditation processes for programmes and institutions.
- The way continuous improvement and accountability to society are structured across the EHEA.
For this reason, the Valencian Agency for Assessment and Foresight (AVAP) considers the launch of this public consultation particularly relevant and encourages:
- Universities in the Valencian Community and their quality units.
- Academic staff and students.
- Other stakeholders involved in higher education.
to review the draft ESG 2027 and, where appropriate, submit their contributions through the form provided by ENQA.
Active participation by all these stakeholders will help ensure that the future version of the ESG better reflects the diversity of higher education systems and the real needs of their institutions, strengthening quality and trust in the European Higher Education Area.
