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A major revolution in education is going to take place as various global quality assurance agencies are working consistently to define the framework for checking the fake universities and institutes. The main aim of these agencies is to prevent the students from being cheated or duped by fake institutions across the world. These agencies will also help the institutes to identify fake or bogus accreditation bodies.
There are various quality assurance bodies across the world, which play a significant role in assessing the institutes in different countries. Here is a list of prevalent quality assurance agencies from Africa, UK, Australia, America, Europe and Asia: -
- TEQSA or Tertiary Education Quality & Standards Agency from Australia
- Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education from the United Kingdom or the UK
- ENQA or European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education
- Council for Higher Education and Accreditation (CHEA) from the United States of America (USA)
- APQN or Asia-Pacific Quality Network
Also read: - NAAC Makes Agreement with US Body for Sharing Best Practices in Assessment and Accreditation
As of now, INQAAHE or International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education, which is regarded as a worldwide association of 300 organisations, is active in the domain of quality assurance with respect to higher education. INQAAHE will work with UNESCO or United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation for developing a GQAR or Global Quality Assurance Register.
Both INQAAHE and UNESCO will play a significant role in recognising and reviewing various quality assurance bodies. The fake bodies that have already given an accreditation to higher educational institutes will be blacklisted.
Through this initiative, the members of INQAAHE, i.e., External Quality Assurance Agencies (EQAAs) and other recognised regional and national recognition or review bodies will be benefitted and all these bodies will be engaged in the listing of accreditation agencies (review and recognition). All these bodies will form an alliance and launch Global Quality Assurance Register (GQAR) as a joint global initiative.
The new initiative has been hailed by the general assembly of INQAAHE that was held in Fiji. Apart from this initiative, all the agencies that are engaged in reviewing and recognition of accreditation agencies can come together and provide a list of quality-assured accreditation agencies on a platform, i.e., GQAR. It will be a one-stop solution for those who are looking for recognised Quality Assurance (QA) bodies.
Also read: - Institutes with 3 Consecutive NAAC High Grades to Get Two-Year Extension of Accreditation
Recently, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has listed the names of 23 universities and termed them as fake. These universities are not allowed to either award degrees or diplomas. However, the state governments expressed surprise as these institutes either don't exist or have not closed down yet.
UGC further indicated that most of these institutes do not meet the minimum requirements prescribed by the commission. Despite that, they offer degrees. Therefore, UGC directed the state governments to take action against these universities for cheating the students.
With these findings coming out in the open, it is all the more valid and essential to involve global quality assurance agencies to keep a tab on the existence and opening of fake universities and accreditation bodies. This mechanism will regulate the fake institutes or universities and prevent students from being duped.
