It is important for the LEPL – National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement to involve employers in external quality assurance. Since 2018, employers, as members of the expert pool, have been involved in the processes of HEI authorization and program accreditation.

Employers are an important part of the expert pool in assessing the compliance of HEIs and their programs with the standards. However, one of the main goals of their involvement in the assessment process is to increase the competitiveness of HEI graduates in the labour market. Moreover, employers’ representatives are members of the EQE Coordination Council and Sectoral Councils, as well as of the HEI Authorization and Program Accreditation Councils.

The responsibilities of the experts involved in the HEI authorization/program accreditation processes are as follows:  

Participation in the assessment process to verify HEI compliance with the Authorization/Program Accreditation Standards, which covers the following:

Examination of the authorization/accreditation documents submitted by the institution;

Formulation of remarks, viewpoints and questions in respect of the standard on the basis of the examined documents;

Participation in drawing up an authorization/accreditation  site-visit agenda;

Participation in the authorization/accreditation site-visit, which involves consideration of all issues for reporting purposes, including interviews with the persons concerned, requiring additional documents, where necessary, and conducting a visual inspection; 

Participation in reviewing and summarizing the assessment results, as well as in reporting after the visit;

Participation in the meeting of the Authorization/Accreditation Council to discuss relevant issues;

Participation in training sessions and workshops organized by EQE.

Qualification requirements to be met by employers that are members of the HEI Authorization/ Program Accreditation Expert Corps are as follows: 

Master’s or an equivalent academic degree; depending on the specifics of the field, the expert may have a bachelor’s or an equivalent academic degree and distinguished work experience in the relevant field;

Work experience as a middle or top-level manager;

Holding the valid status of an employer at the time of admission to the Expert Corps;

Knowledge of English (employer experts that are members of the Accreditation Expert Corps should know English);

Employer experts should have experience of working at an HEI.

If you would like to join the EQE expert pool, please send us your resume (providing the name of your referee) via eqsperts@eqe.ge, and EQE representatives will contact you.