Estonian Higher Education Quality Agency (EKKA)
EKKA promotes the quality of higher education and vocational education and training (VET) in Estonia, values the best quality assurance practices and disseminates them. Upon making assessment decisions, EKKA is independent and sovereign. EKKA continues the work of the Estonian Higher Education Accreditation Centre and the Estonian Higher Education Quality Assessment Council that operated from 1997 to 2008. EKKA was established on January 1, 2009.
Two councils - The Higher Education Quality Assessment Council and VET Quality Assessment Council - currently operate as parts of EKKA.
EKKA
- - offers consultations on quality assurance in higher education and VET as well as training for higher education institutions, VET institutions and evaluation experts
- - conducts institutional accreditation of higher education institutions in Estonia and quality assessment of study programme groups
- - conducts expert analyses in order to grant the higher education institutions the right to conduct studies
- - conducts expert analyses of study programmes that are not yet registered in Estonia
- - conducts accreditation of study programme groups of VET institutions
- - analyses the evaluation process and makes information about the outcomes of assessment of higher education and VET institutions publicly available
- - participates in international higher education and VET quality assurance networks, such as ENQA, INQAAHE, CEEN, EQAVET, and others
EKKA is comprised of the Bureau, which administers and organises EKKA's work, and EKKA Quality Assessment Council, whose main task is to make decisions on institutional accreditation of higher education institutions in Estonia and on quality assessment of their study programme groups.