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Estonia has had an independent system of quality assurance in place since the mid-1990s. Quality assessment is a continuous process consisting of four parts: institutional self-analysis; site visits conducted by a body of foreign experts; oversight by the autonomous Higher Education Quality Assessment Council (higher education) or Science Competence Council (R&D), which make decisions regarding study and research programmes of institutions; and institutional self-improvement activities.
Active assessment of higher education study programmes began in 1997, research evaluation in the spring of 2000. Higher Education Accreditiation Centre, a member of the European Network of Agencies of Quality Assurance (ENQA), is responsible for organisation of both higher education and research evaluation and making accreditation and evaluation decisions public.
To carry out the evaluations the evaluation committees are formed on the recommendations of which the respective councils make proposals to the Minister of Education and Research regarding institutions and their operation. These committees are made up of representatives of research and development institutions as well as of researchers from foreign countries, and the local experts who participate in the evaluation visits as observers. The participation of foreign researchers is intended to guarantee the greater objectivity of the evaluation.
All costs of the evaluation are covered by the Ministry of Education and Research from the resources allocated from the state budget.
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