On November 13-14, 2015 an annual Forum of Experts in Higher Education was held in Moscow. This year’s Forum was co-organized by the NCPA, the Guild of Experts in Higher Education and Moscow Pedagogical State University with the participation and financial support of the TEMPUS-1-2013-1-AM-TEMPUS-JPGR.

The Forum brought together representatives from expert, academic, professional and student communities from Russia, Armenia, Ukraine and EU countries: Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Poland. There were over 160 participants (64 of them were ALIGN project partners).

The first day’s presentations focused on the issues of education quality and relevance of students’ learning experience. One of the key speakers at the plenary session was CEENQA president Dr. Iring Wasser, whose presentation was devoted to the important issue of learning outcomes and their implementation in the Russian higher education system. This issue from the point of view of LO assessment was developed in the presentation of Vladimir Navodnov, Director of NCPA. Another topic which kindled the interest of the audience was “nostrificating” the new European quality standards in Russia addressed by Dr. Galina Motova.

During the second day the participants were engaged in the discussions of three working sessions: Writing and Using Good Learning Outcomes for Quality Progression of Students; Tools and Mechanisms for Assessing Students’ Leaning Outcomes; Achieving Excellence in Higher Education through Quality Assurance.

In the opinion of those, who attended this notable event, the Forum deepened our understanding of importance, factors and driving forces, as well as impacts of education quality and relevant learning outcomes on improving students’ performance within EHEA countries.

In the framework of the Forum the participants had a possibility to join a master class "DevelopingStudent-CentredLearning" organized by professors Paul Hyland and Irina Pomorina from the University of Bath (England).

This year’s Forum became a unique base for discussions and provided the participants with an opportunity to analyze the perspectives and trends in the development of higher education and quality assurance.

Please see more information at the website of the Guild of Experts in Higher Education and in the next issue of the journal “Accreditation in education”.