The European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes (adopted by Ministers in Yerevan on 14-15 May 2015) is meant to be a huge step forward in removing barriers in QA for establishing and operating joint programmes. This approach has been design to enable any EQAR-registered external quality assurance agency to carry out a single QA procedure of a joint programme using the agreed European criteria and methodology. The outcomes of this single QA procedure should then be accepted by the other EHEA countries that are involved in the joint programme. However, despite the fact that this single accreditation approach was highly expected by all stakeholders, its practical implementation faced numerous challenges and obstacles. In 2017, when the ImpEA project was launched, only 19 out of 49 countries of the European Higher Education Area offered higher education institutions the possibility to use the European Approach at all. The main aim of the project was to support efficient implementation of the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes. This aim was meant to be achieved by successful completion of the following objectives: 1. Identifying key obstacles in implementation of the European Approach in the European Higher Education Area in general, and project partner countries in particular; 2. Supporting partner QA agencies in running EA-based programme accreditation procedures (ex ante and ex post); 3. Supporting partner HEIs in pursuing the external accreditation based on the EA; 4. Developing an EA implementation toolkit (set of recommendations and proposed solutions for the policy makers and QA agencies).The main target audience and direct impact groups of the project were the following: European and national policy-making bodies, higher education institutions, quality assurance agencies in terms of enhanced awareness and understanding of the European Approach. For the project partners and participants of of the project events, this was achieved through their direct involvement in, and contribution to the activities. This means in particular the work carried out in order to develop and deliver the intellectual outputs, training events, multiplier and dissemination activities.Above-mentioned members of the project target groups, not engaged in the project activities directly, this ‘enhanced capacity’ effect will be achieved through the project publications, dissemination activities and foremost, the availability of the European Approach online toolkit (www.impea.eu).The ImpEA project has received a very keen interest throughout its duration and past it. This means that the project was able to generate a robust outreach to the main target groups. More then 1650 participants took part in the project and third-party events, where the European Approach to Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes and ImpEA project were discussed and presented. The main participant groups were higher education institutions (approx. 1070 participants), quality assurance agencies (250), students (370), policy making bodies (100), stakeholder organisations (ENQA, ECA, ESU, EUA) and other interested parties (i.e.EQAR, ENIC-NARIC). The direct and indirect project dissemination activities were aimed to reach national, European and global audience. The wide outreach of the project has also direct and indirect impact on the main target groups. The HEIs benefit from undergoing EA-based accreditation procedure which, if it results with positive assessment, is automatically recognised in every EHEA country in which given joint programme is offered. This significantly reduces the bureaucratic burden comparing to current, national-based approach. Reduction of the administrative burden also facilitates development of new joint programmes as it encourages teaching staff, managers and students to engage in the simplify QA procedure. Successful achievement of the main sustainability-related project outcome, the EA online toolkit, supports the momentum for full implementation of the EA in EHEA. This comprehensive tool is a one-stop-shop and easily accessible medium for everyone interested in joint programmes and the European Approach. It is based on the knowledge and experience gained by the project partners in carrying out the project activities and intellectual outputs. Furthermore, its design has been strongly based on the qualitative and quantitative sources of information gathered throughout the project, i.e. online survey, focus groups, events participants' discussions and feedback, consortium brainstorming, etc. Therefore, it can be considered a sustainable source of long-term impact, beyond the project itself.In 2020, at the end of the ImpEA project, the number of EHEA countries accepting the EA-based accreditation procedure has significantly increased. This means that out of 49 EHEA countries, 29 introduced favourable legal frameworks.

The project responds to the concerns expressed by stakeholders on the shortcomings in the labour market orientation of Higher Education (HE), focusing on the balance between practical and theoretical learning in HE and to mismatches between the skills sets of graduates and the skills they require during their early careers. EU countries have experienced a substantial increase in graduate unemployment and a decrease of quality of their employment. European students and graduates report continuously that they are worried about their careers. At the same time employers and employers’ organisations report they are having increasing difficulties in finding graduates with matching skills.In this Knowledge Alliance, Integrating Entrepreneurship and Work Experience into Higher Education (WEXHE), enterprises, associations and HEIs have come together to identify and analyse current provision of work experience in HEIs in 7 different EU countries, generating 75 case studies of work-based learning (WBL) involving all four types of disciplinary sectors (hard-pure, e.g. natural sciences; soft-pure, e.g. humanities and social sciences; hard-applied, e.g. medicine and soft-applied, e.g. social work) covering work placements, traineeships and entrepreneurships. Working with practitioners, it has created 9 comprehensive Packages of WBL, together with guidance on management, quality assurance, learning outcomes, funding and accreditation, as well as 3 Summary Reports covering the identified three modes of WBL: work placements, traineeships and entrepreneurship. These cover and support the 4 sectors and allow for tailoring to national contexts. The project aims to:• increase capacity of HE staff and enterprises to provide high quality work experience and entrepreneurship• identify what kind of WBL leads to high quality jobs• support the accreditation of WBL through ECTS and effective Quality Assurance• ensure that skills needs of employers are understood

TWO TOPICS became prevalent in European Higher Education Area in the past years due to the Bologna Process. The first topic is COMPETENCE-BASED HIGHER EDUCATION. The focus now is more on students and their competences and less on teachers and their imparting knowledge. This results in a fundamental shift in higher education as new curricula, teaching methods, exam formats, and learning strategies are implemented. The second topic is QUALITY. Quality and efficiency of European education systems are fostered by different strategies like the ‘Standards and Guidelines for Quality Management in European Higher Education Institutions’ (ESG, 2015) or the EU programme Erasmus+.As a consequence many higher education institutions (HEIs) are now looking for new quality management procedures that address the students’ competences as well as the competence-based teaching and learning process. The PROJECT ‘Internal Quality Management: Evaluating and Improving Competence-Based Higher Education’ picked up the need for a new procedure. We developed a procedure that is primarily designed for internal quality management at HEIs, to be undertaken by internal evaluators or quality managers. Our project had three OBJECTIVES:1.WE DEVELOPED a new quality management procedure and an according toolkit that helps HEIs in implementing the new procedure. The Toolkit is called ‘European Toolkit for Internal Quality Management in Competence-Based Higher Education’. 2.WE IMPLEMENTED and tested the new procedure and the European Toolkit in five HEIs.3.WE DISSEMINATED the European Toolkit to European HEIs. The PROJECT CONSORTIUM consisted of ten partners, coordinated by Vetmeduni Vienna. Five HEIs formed the so-called IMPLEMENTATION TEAM: (1) University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, (2) University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, (3) University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, (4) University of Oldenburg, Germany, and (5) Vilnius University, Lithuania (all public and non-profit institutions). These five HEIs already had experience with competence-based teaching. They implemented and tested the newly developed procedure and the European Toolkit. The University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, additionally brought in experience with a scientific pilot study on competence-based evaluation instruments in developing the European Toolkit. The ACTIVITIES of the implementation team were (a) developing the tools of the European Toolkit, (b) implementing and testing the European Toolkit at their higher education institutions, and (c) disseminating the European Toolkit to a mostly local target audience.The other partners formed the EXPERT TEAM: (6) ENQA (non-public, non-profit), (7) EAEVE (non-public, non-profit), (8) AQ Austria (public, non-profit), (9) as well as experts from the University of Economics and Business, Vienna (public, non-profit), and from (10) the University of Vienna (public, non-profit). The expert team provided international expertise in quality assurance in higher education as well as expertise in competence research, evaluation research, and implementation research. The ACTIVITIES of the expert team were (a) developing a handbook, (b) continually reviewing the other tools developed by the implementation team, (c) giving advice in the implementation phase and (d) disseminating the European Toolkit to a mostly international target audience. The project had three main RESULTS. The first result is the European Toolkit, which includes many tools:•A handbook on how to implement internal quality management for competence-based teaching and learning.•Information material for decisions-makers, students, teachers, etc.•Workshop ideas•Templates for questionnaires•Template for a report•Collection of possible measures for quality enhancement and quality assurance•and many moreThe second result is the implementation of the new procedure in five HEIs as well as experience and lessons learned. The third result is the wide range of dissemination activities and -products. The most important dissemination product is the project website www.iqm-he.eu where the toolkit as well as the implementation partners’ experience is freely available.The project had IMPACT on the project participants (e.g. by integrating different perspectives on quality management, now having an expert network) and the participating organizations (e.g. by implementing a new quality management procedure), as well as the ultimate target group, which is European HEIs that received information on the project and its results (via website, newsletters, conference talks, workshops, etc.). Due to a long list of implementation and dissemination actions within the project we are looking forward to the LONGER-TERM BENEFITS of our project: European Toolkit provides a helpful piece of the puzzle for enhancing the quality and efficiency of the European higher education institutions.

MIELES will support a network of Indian HEI to develop and implement institutional strategies for elearning. Many development cooperation interventions are related directly to ICT infrastructure (Digital India, for example) or to the provision of online course content. Few projects have addressed the need to support HEI to utilise ICT infrastructure and online course content, and to enable leadership and staff to do so, in a cross-instituional way (one of the purpose of strategies). Working on this issue in an international consortium of partners, in the context of Erasmus+, will help in shaping quality standards for Indian online course content and elearning approaches, innovate teaching and learning practices/pedagogy via e-learning and build capacity of teachers across partner institutions to use elearning and ICT tools. MIELES is thus designed to provide a collaborative platform to address a relevant issue for the development, reform, democratization and modernization of the higher education system in India and to reinforce Indian-EU higher education collaboration.

The wider objective of the project is to support the structural reform of the higher education system in Jordan, develop a qualifications framework for higher education in line with national priorities, and implement at different institutional levels. NQF-J shall provide a QF for higher education for implementation at institutional level and, importantly, set up the basis for a comprehensive NQF, and thus endeavours to establish an NQF model that identifies the generic expectations of all levels of higher educational programmes. These will be expressed as learning outcomes, mainly based on knowledge, skills and competences. The standards of qualifications at each level will be created and established through a number of activities in which descriptors will be determined, along with appropriate QA processes, by all stakeholders in higher education. The methodology for setting and assuring the qualification standards will be disseminated among academic institutions, government agencies responsible for QA and accreditation, and a wide spectrum of stakeholders. The project will clearly demonstrate the standards of Jordanian higher education awards and their national comparability. Additionally, through rigorous comparison with other national QFs, the project will demonstrate comparability of Jordanian higher education wider awards with international norms and expectations, thus supporting mobility and employability. In particular, its compatibility against the Framework for Qualifications of the European Higher Education Area (FQ-EHEA) and also against the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) will be demonstrated.