Summary

The development of quality assurance (QA) systems in Latin American countries has been a topical issue for over a decade, both nationally and in the context of the Latin American Higher Education Space, which is now driven by ‘ENLACES’, an agreement of major university associations across the region (). Many countries have either developed new QA agencies, tasked with both accreditation (Panama and Nicaragua), or have established agencies that have been reforming their models and re-defining how they engage with universities, to instill a better quality culture at the institutional level (Colombia and Argentina).

At the same time, regional cooperation around QA/accreditation has grown and is something which ENLACES supports: CONEAU plays a major part in regional accreditation within ‘ARCUSUR’ and the Mercosur Educative Network (Action Plan 2016-2020 – Sector Educativo del MERCOSUR); CCA has been promoting accreditation across Central America (CA), including in countries that do yet have QA systems; existing LA agencies have cooperated in the past in the context of the network RIACES to build capacity in QA; Finally, ANECA is implementing its “AUDIT-Centroamérica” project along with the CCA, which deals directly with the development of internal QA in universities in Panamá, Costa Rica and Honduras.

EQUAM-LA hence proposes to support universities and national agencies to work together to improve and reinforce internal QA management and processes and link them to specific areas, like recognition, so as to underpin regional integration.