IQAA – IMPORTANT UNIT OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM RECOGNIZED ABROAD

Dr. Gita Revalde (Latvia),
President of Almaty University of Power Engineering and Telcommunication.

Hereby I would like to congratulate you and your colleagues with the 10th anniversary of the Independent Agency for Quality Assurance in Education.

10th year anniversary of the first accreditation agency in Kazakhstan shows the fast success of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of Higher Education after entering the Bologna process on March 2010. Joining the Bologna process means that Kazakhstan is becoming a full member of European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Quality assurance and increasing higher education quality are the most important aspects of Bologna process. Bologna process is voluntary process of participating countries to harmonize their higher education systems. The goal is to achieve comparable quality of the study programmes to ensure the recognition of the degrees and diplomas in Europe to facilitate academic mobility.

In short time IQAA is becoming an important player in Higher Education system in Kazakhstan and abroad. IQAA has strong international cooperation with organizations working in the areas of accreditation and quality assurance in Europe, USA and other parts of the world. It is worth mentioning that IQAA has become member of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), the Asia-Pacific Quality Network (APQN), the Network of Central and Eastern European Quality Assurance Agencies (CEENQA), and the CHEA International Quality Group (CIQG). That means that IQAA works in accordance of the Standards and Guidelines of Quality Assurance in EHEA. IQAA has impressive database of experts around the globe – about 300 international experts from 30 foreign countries. Myself I always admire high quality of organization of the accreditation procedure and on-site visits.

To a large extent, the quality of higher education in Kazakhstan is now in the hands of IQAA, and I wish the agency not stop at the achieved but to strive to improve their quality continuously since this is the main principle of every system of quality assurance.

Good luck!