The international seminar "Internal Quality Assurance: Perspectives and Challenges" was held at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. The representatives of the universities of Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Ireland, as well as the National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement of Georgia participated in the event.

George Sharvashidze, rector of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, said that the seminar is very important for the development of the education system in terms of quality assurance. "It is a very important seminar where issues such as improving the quality of education and teaching are discussed. Also, one of the issues is how post-covid education looks like, how universities change every year. Specialists from different countries are participating in the seminar. I would especially like to greet my Ukrainian colleagues", said George Sharvashidze.

Issues, such as Irish nternal quality assurance model, doctoral education quality assurance and e-learning quality assurance were discussed at the seminar. Sinead O'Sullivan, Director of Quality Assurance at the University of Limerick (Ireland), noted that the seminar is important in terms of sharing experience. According to her, the Irish specialists with their Georgian and Ukrainian colleagues will discuss the related issues in a working format.

The head of the Quality Assurance Service of Tbilisi State University - Irma Grdzelidze spoke about the format and content of the seminar. “We shared our experiences, especially after the pandemic, what challenges the universities faced and what are the future prospects for this cooperation. European Colleagues shared their experience of how they manage internal quality assurance, what are the procedures, what are the challenges they face. They talked about what perspectives they have and how the quality culture is formed not only with the support of external actors, we mean quality development agencies, but also within the institution itself. It is worth noting and very important fact the Secretary General of the European University Association, as well as the head of European University Association Council for Doctoral Education are attending the seminar. They spoke about the experience, challenges and their perspectives of European universities, as well as the experiences of the doctoral school” noted Irma Grdzelidze and thanked Academia Europea for giving five Ukrainian colleagues the opportunity to attend the seminar.

During the seminar reports were read by representatives of four Irish universities (University of Limerick, Dublin City University, Mary Immaculate College, South East Technological University), representatives of the European University Association and the European University Association Council for Doctoral Education, as well as representatives of Quality Assurance Services and Georgian Universities.  

Secretary General of the European University Association – Amanda Crowfoot said that the issues, which are discussed in the seminar are important topics for universities. “Such forums provide an opportunity to discuss these issues not only in national but also in the international context. European University Association works and cooperates in 49 different European countries.”

Representative of Quality Center of Taras Shevchenko National University – Veronika Tkachuk noted: “This event is a good opportunity for different universities to share experience with each other and to get more information in terms of quality assurance, to improve our knowledge and then use this experience in our university. I hope that sharing this knowledge between our universities will continue in the future.”

Representative of Ivan Franko National University of Lvov – Nadiya Lemega thanked the organizers and participants of the event for sharing their experience. “We want to use this knowledge to improve the quality system in our universities. Intellectual support is very important for our country, especially at this moment,” she noted.

The international seminar lasted for three days. The agenda of the seminar with links to the presentations see here.