A degree programme may be accredited directly by EQANIE or indirectly by an EQANIE Authorised Agency. Currently ANECA in Spain, ASIIN in Germany and the BCS in the UK are EQANIE Authorised Agencies.
A direct accreditation procedure is initiated when a Higher Education Institution submits a request containing preliminary information about the degree programme(s) it wishes to have considered. An initial evaluation is made by the EQANIE Secretariat and members of the Accreditation Committee.
If the evaluation is positive, an Audit Team is assembled from among EQANIE’s Panel of Experts and the Institution is invited to submit a self-assessment report. This report is studied by the Audit Team which later visits the Institution. Each programme is assessed in terms of the extent to which the expected programme learning outcomes of the programme match the Euro-Inf programme outcome requirements, the resources available for its implementation, the prior qualifications expected of students entering the programme, the methods of assessment, and quality control procedures.
After the visit, the Audit Team submits a report to the Accreditation Committee together with its recommendation regarding the outcome. The Accreditation Committee decides on the outcome which can be:
- that the programme should be accredited for 5 years, perhaps with recommendations
- that the programme should be accredited provided that certain conditions are met within a limited timescale
- that the procedure should be suspended until major requirements have been fulfilled
- that the programme should not be accredited.
An accredited programme is awarded the Euro-Inf Bachelor or Euro-Inf Master label as appropriate and is added to the list of accredited courses maintained on the EQANIE website.
