OBREAL is pleased to announce the official launch of the Erasmus+ Capacity Building for Higher Education project (CBHE): ‘QA Doc’. A structural project that involves ministries of education, quality assurance agencies and universities in Senegal, Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It also involves members and partners in Spain (Universitat Rovira i Virgili and AQU), Portugal (Universidade de Beira Interior, A3ES) and France (University of Montpelier).
The Université Cheikh Anta Diop, the national QA Agency of Senegal (ANAQ-Sup), and OBREAL are the coordinators of the project. The objective is to reinforce the capacity for the assessment of doctoral schools and research in the targeted African countries, and promote common evaluation standards and criteria.
It responds to a demand across the continent for African higher education research capacity based on well-structured and high quality doctoral education. Given its strategic significance, the project has a number of associated partners, including the AUF, DAAD, ENQA, CAMES and AAU. It also involves the national QA agency of Mozambique, in the interest of promoting intra-African, intra-linguistic cooperation in this field.
Through this project, OBREAL hopes to contribute to strengthening research and innovation capacities. QA Doc is the latest addition to a rich portfolio of capacity building actions in Africa. Actions targeted at quality higher education, at regional harmonization/integration and research and innovation capacity.
Developing and impementing common standards
The objective of QA Doc is to better equip these countries to develop and assess their own doctoral schools and general research quality, in line with international standards and practices. This will better enable African research to address its own social and economic challenges. To this end, the project aims to:
- Strengthen the capacity of ministries of higher education and national quality assurance agencies. Thus, standards for the evaluation of doctoral training and research will be developed and applied.
- Strengthen the capacity of universities. Evaluation of the quality of doctoral education and research based on standards developed and adapted from other national, regional and international systems and practices.
- Strengthen cooperation in research and doctoral education between Europe and Africa by promoting common standards for quality assurance and evaluation.
The standards developed during the project will be tested through pilot evaluations at the six partner universities. Best practices, training and experience in research evaluation and doctoral training will be shared between African institutions and quality assurance agencies in Portugal and Spain. Also with universities in France, Spain and Portugal. The ultimate goal is to improve cooperation in research and doctoral training in Africa, bolster capacity and position universities as motors for innovation and development.
