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Quality assurance of transnational education is a topic that has recently gained prominence and has been placed on the agenda of the 2024 ministerial communiqué of the Bologna follow-up group.

The quality of transnational education raises the question of how to strike the right balance between the need for the external quality assurance procedures of the sending country to be adapted to the local context of the hosting country, while at the same time ensuring that it is based on the same requirements as national procedures in the sending country.

Joint universities are a particular form of transnational education resulting from cooperation between higher education institutions and requiring a collaborative form of quality assurance provision. The French University in Armenia (UFAR), as an intergovernmental university offering dual degrees recognised in both France and Armenia, requested a joint external evaluation in 2023 by the High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (Hcéres – France) and the Armenian agency (ANQA). This paper discusses the main implications for the external quality assurance of joint universities through the example of the ad hoc procedure that was carried out at UFAR in a fit-for-purpose approach which attempted to accommodate the distinct needs of both French and Armenian accreditation requirements. It focuses on the French part of the evaluation, including the dialogue between UFAR and the French government. The paper also provides space for dialogue between external and internal quality assurance provisions, in order to provide key insights into how inter-agency cooperation can support the quality assurance of joint universities.

This paper was presented at EQAF and reflects the views of the named authors only.

ISSN: 1375-3797

What are the prospects of joint evaluation procedures for joint universities? A case study of the evaluation of the French University in Armenia

Sophie Guillet, Amélie Bensimon, Zaruhi Soghomonyan, Aida Ter-Ghazaryan
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