TAM Report / Ukraine - Quality Assurance

GENERAL INFORMATION

TAM title: Quality assurance of teaching and learning in emergency and crisis situations

Type of Event: Webinar

Modality: Online

Country: Ukraine

Dates: 15 – 16 July 2025

Participants: The online TAM gathered around 130 participants, mainly teachers, researchers, ministry representatives, HEREs, and a representative of the national quality assurance agency, reflecting wide engagement from across Ukraine’s higher education system.

THEMES COVERED

• Key concepts and tools of quality assurance
• European Higher Education Area (EHEA) QA framework
• Adapting QA systems to emergency, crisis, and wartime conditions
• QA mechanisms to support teaching and learning during disruption
• Examples from other countries recovering from conflict
• Strategies for institutional improvement and remedial action
• Peer-learning and co-creation of good practices toolbox

KEY OUTCOMES

During the workshop, participants:

• Learned how to adapt QA tools and evaluation mechanisms to wartime realities.
• Reviewed international examples of QA responses to crisis and post-war reconstruction.
• Collaboratively created a toolbox of good practices for enhancing teaching and learning under emergency conditions.
• Engaged in peer exchange, sharing institutional experiences and proposing potential improvements.
• Strengthened awareness of strategic approaches to rebuilding and improving QA systems under constrained conditions.

OVERVIEW

This two-day online TAM focused on quality assurance of teaching and learning in emergency and crisis situations, addressing the urgent needs of Ukrainian higher education during wartime. The expert delivered sessions on the fundamentals of quality assurance, the European framework, and how traditional QA mechanisms can be adapted to crisis conditions. The programme combined presentations, roundtable discussions with Ukrainian HEREs, real-case examples from countries that have faced conflict, and a peer-learning workshop in which participants contributed examples of QA practices and collaboratively built a toolbox of good practices for crisis contexts.

Interactive surveys before and after the training showed a clear increase in participants’ confidence in understanding QA concepts, adapting QA tools to emergency situations, developing evaluation instruments, and designing strategies to improve teaching and learning in crisis-affected institutions.

ENHANCING IMPACT: PROPOSED NEXT STEPS

• Continue developing and refining the toolbox of good practices, and support participants in implementing one selected practice in their institution.
• Increase the quality assurance of online learning, which has become essential during the war.
• Integrate micro-credentials into the national qualification framework to support upskilling and reskilling needs in wartime and reconstruction.
• Shift gradually toward an institutional approach in external QA to enhance university autonomy and maturity.
• Support ongoing national pilots on institutional accreditation (e.g., NAQA–HAKA initiative).
• Strengthen Ukraine’s involvement in the EHEA by ensuring NAQA participates in the Bologna Thematic Peer Group on QA.

RESOURCES AND BACKGROUND MATERIAL

•  Vlasceanu, L., Grünberg, L. & Pârlea, D. (2007). Quality assurance and accreditation: A glossary of basic terms and definitions. Bucharest: UNESCO-CEPES. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134621
• Bologna Follow-Up Group (2003). Realising the European Higher Education Area: Communiqué of the meeting of European Ministers in charge of Higher Education — Berlin, 19 September 2003. Available at: https://ehea.info/Upload/document/ministerial_declarations/2003_Berlin_Communique_English_577284.pdf
• Bologna Follow-Up Group (2005). The European Higher Education Area — Communiqué of the meeting of European Ministers in charge of Higher Education, Bergen, 19–20 May 2005. Available at: https://ehea.info/media.ehea.info/file/2005_Bergen/52/0/2005_Bergen_Communique_english_580520.pdf
• Bologna Follow-Up Group (2015). Yerevan Communiqué 2015. Available at: https://ehea.info/media.ehea.info/file/2015_Yerevan/70/7/YerevanCommuniqueFinal_613707.pdf
• Bologna Follow-Up Group (2015). Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG 2015). Available at: https://ehea.info/media.ehea.info/file/ESG/00/2/ESG_2015_616002.pdf
• European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) (2025). External quality assurance of research in higher education institutions: Taking stock of the practices of European quality assurance agencies. Occasional Paper. ISBN 978-2-931309-00-1. Available at: https://www.enqa.eu/wp-content/uploads/ENQA-QA-of-R-report.pdf
• Semigina, T., Rashkevych, Y., Reznik, H. & Stepankova, N. (2024). National Framework for Micro-Credentials — Launching in Ukraine. Kyiv: National Qualifications Agency / CRED4TEACH project. Available at: https://cred4teach.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Ukraine_EN_National_Framework_Micro-Credentials.pdf