United Kingdom (Wales)

image/svg+xml Map of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) Map of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) A blank map of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and countries fully surrounded by the EHEA. Every country has an id which is its ISO-3116-1-ALPHA2 code in lower case. Members of the EU have a class="eu", all EHEA countries have a class="europe", non-EHEA countries have a class="nonehea". Image based on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blank_map_of_Europe_(with_disputed_regions).svg by JĂşlio "Tintazul" Reis and Marian "maix" Sigler. Made by Colin TĂĽck, EQAR, 2017 Released under CreativeCommons Attribution ShareAlike (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/).
  • Governmental membership
    United Kingdom (Wales) has been a Governmental Member of EQAR since July 2014.

    Map: EHEA countries by governmental membership

  • General information on higher education

    Primary responsibility for the quality of higher education in the UK rests with the four individual nations (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland), and with the individual providers, which are autonomous.

  • National external quality assurance requirements

    External quality assurance regulation rests with the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW). All higher education providers in Wales undergo enhancement-led external reviews. A new external institutional quality review method is currently under development to commence in the Academic Year 2023/24.

    • Institutional review

  • EHEA key commitment

    Fully aligned with the ESG

    A fully functioning quality assurance system is in operation nationwide, in which all higher education institutions are subject to regular external quality assurance by an agency that has successfully demonstrated compliance with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the EHEA (ESG) through registration on EQAR

  • Cross-border quality assurance

    Recognising EQAR-registered agencies as part of the national external QA requirements

    • Eligibility requirements for foreign agencies: Welsh regulated providers must undergo a review from an EQAR Registered agency once in every six years.

    • Conditions for the agencies’ work (e.g. criteria to be used): Specific conditions related to the use of the Welsh language and alignment with the Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales; use of the core and common practices within the Quality Code as well as characteristics statements and subject benchmark statements, where appropriate (see more in to Quality Assessment Framework for Wales)​    

    Map: recognition of cross-border quality assurance

  • European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes

    European Approach available to all higher education institutions

    All higher education institutions with degree awarding power are able to approve their own awards and therefore they can employ the European Approach for the quality assurance of their joint programme.  

    Map: availability of the European Approach for QA of Joint Programmes


Registered agencies operating in United Kingdom (Wales)