Organized by the Directorate-General for International Partnerships of the EU (INTPA), the HAQAA3 consortium presented in a webinar on March 13th for a network of EU Delegations in Africa. The event highlighted the opportunities that this initiative provides for authorities, agencies and higher education institutions. It stressed the important role that the EU Delegations can play to foster sustainable development and encourage trade and investment in Africa.
Contacts at EU Delegations were invited to engage in the promotion of actions such as capacity building for QA authorities in Africa countries, higher education data for policy making and the uptake and piloting of an African Credit Transfer System. The important synergies that HAQAA has with other initiatives under the EU Global Gateway and particularly the Youth Mobility Flagship was stressed.
The HAQAA3 Initiative
HAQAA3 is the third phase of a robust response of the European Union and the African Union to “provide African countries with the skilled workers, managers, and administrators they need to foster sustainable development and encourage trade and investment as well as to enhance citizenship and democratic values“.
The initiative aims at:
- Supporting quality assurance (QA) culture and quality enhancement in higher education institutions, as well as the capacities of quality assurance agencies and national/regional authorities.
- Developing, implementing and piloting transparency tools such as the African Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ASG-QA) and African Credit Transfer System (ACTS).
- Supporting the higher education sector (including policymakers) on issues related to evidence based and informed policymaking, with a view to strengthening regional and continental integration, enhance the sector’s responsiveness and contribution to socio-economic challenges and to support the revision/extension of the Continental Education Strategy for Africa 2016-2025 (CESA).
