Responsible bodies

The Slovak Accreditation Agency for Higher Education

The Slovak Accreditation Agency for Higher Education (SK) (hereinafter the “Agency”) was established on 1 November 2018 by Act No. 269/2018 Coll. on quality assurance of higher education.  The Agency is a public institution that carries out external quality assurance activities in higher education and is based in Bratislava.

The Agency

• determines on the scope of higher education institutions' qualifications required for higher education institutions in the Slovak Republic,
• issues standards for the internal quality assurance system of higher education, standards for degree programs and standards for habilitation and inaugural procedures. The draft standards have the opportunity to be heard by the public before they are formally adopted,
• assesses applications for state approval to operate as a private higher education institution,
• decides on the granting (or not granting) of appropriate accreditations under the law.

The  Agency's mission is to improve the quality of education through modern tools that are harmonised with the European Standards for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ESG 2015). It has replaced the activities of the existing Accreditation Commission (which acts as an advisory body to the Government of the Slovak Republic) in assessing applications of higher education institutions, and also takes over the competence of the relevant decisions of the Minister of Education Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic.

The accreditation standards will be the outline for accreditation standards, whose proposal was published by the Agency together with the evaluation of the comments sent by the public and the submission report after the statement of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic.

The Agency is (among others) obliged

• to apply for membership of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education by 31 December 2022,
• and for enrollment in the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education,
• to apply the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education to be assessed at least every five years.

Sources: 

Slovak Accreditation Agency for Higher Education (Slovenská akreditačná agentúra pre vysoké školstvo): About the Agency (O agentúre) (last accessed 19/04/2021).

Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic (Ministerstvo školstva, vedy, výskumu a športu Slovenskej republiky): Accreditations in Higher Education (Akreditácie v oblasti vysokého školstva) (last accessed 19/04/2021).

Approaches and methods for quality assurance

Internal evaluation

According to the Act on higher education, higher education institutions are responsible for the quality of provided education. Higher education institutions need to have a functional internal system of quality. The goal of the internal system of quality is to assure quality of all activities by means of defining higher education institution’s quality assurance policies and procedures.

Higher education institution’s policy for quality assurance includes tools, organisation, allocation of responsibility, level of actors’ (e.g. students’) engagement, manner of introduction, use, monitoring and assessment of the quality assurance system.

The areas of quality assurance include study programmes, criteria and rules of students’ evaluation, quality of higher education teachers, educational process, material and information sources for educational support, collection, analysis, use and disclosure of information.

The Agency assesses the internal system of quality which is a part of the evaluation of higher education institutions.

A public, privat and foreign higher education institutions are by Act on higher education obligated to elaborate, to submit to the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and to publish an annual report on their activities. Public higher education institutions are also obligated to publish an annual report on their management on a yearly basis. This also applies to private higher education institutions if they have received a subsidy from the state budget.

External evaluation

A higher education institution is required to ask the Agency to assess its internal system at least once every ten years. In assessing the application, the Agency shall evaluate the level of compliance with each standard, indicating any weaknesses and recommendations identified.

The study program standards focus mainly on the level of:

• spatial, material, technical, information and personnel provision of study programs,
• creative activities of the higher education institution in the relevant field of study,
• taking into account the latest knowledge from the relevant field of study,
• requirements for successful completion of study according to the study program,
• graduates, in particular through the achievements of higher education and their compliance with the required level of the national qualifications framework;
• requirements for filling posts of university teachers and others.

On the basis of the results of the assessment, the Agency will decide whether or not the internal system of the higher education institution and its implementation comply with the standards.

The Agency shall continuously monitor compliance with the internal system standards at least every two years.