Quality assurance in higher education is a fundamental aspect of continued internationalisation, and in view of this, the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) and the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) have decided to start collaborating on the subject of quality assurance in eLearning in 2008.


EADTU, as Europe's main voice in distance higher education, has been working on the subject of quality assurance in eLearning over the past three years in the context of a project called E-xcellence. In a team of twelve European experts coming from open universities, traditional universities, the EUA, and assessment and accreditation bodies, EADTU has developed a manual and benchmarking instrument on quality assurance in eLearning. From 2008 on, EADTU will further introduce quality assurance in eLearning Europe-wide.

ENQA has determined that quality assurance in eLearning is one of the priority topics for 2008, and the organization's Board accepted the proposals from the EADTU E-xcellence project on quality benchmarking of eLearning. ENQA and EADTU will cooperate on the subject of quality assurance in eLearning and work towards developing models of eLearning quality assessment and accreditation across Europe.

To enhance their efforts in introducing quality assurance in eLearning in the European higher education systems, ENQA and EADTU will cooperate closely with universities and assessment and accreditation bodies. Both parties have an especially important role in the context of the introduction and fine-tuning of the E-xcellence benchmarks on the local level, and in this endeavour, ENQA and EADTU function together as a platform for exchanging information between quality assurance experts and university stakeholders.