On January 14, 2021, the NIAD-QE held an online meeting to exchange information with the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) in the United Kingdom, with whom the NIAD-QE has signed a Memorandum of Understanding. This was the third online meeting between the NIAD-QE and the QAA, following their second meeting in February 2019, and it went on for about two hours.

The QAA outlined the measures against the spread of COVID-19 and the progress in international work, highlighting that they have: 1) provided various guidance materials to support higher education providers during the pandemic, 2) launched the International Quality Review (IQR)—an external review of higher education institutions outside the United Kingdom during late 2019, and 3) been publishing country reports on higher education and quality assurance in various countries around the world.

The NIAD-QE explained the perceptual changes regarding the Certified Evaluation and Accreditation (CEA) of universities over the years based on the analytical results of the survey on the first and second cycle CEA. The third cycle CEA report was also briefly discussed together with the measures taken against COVID-19 in Japanese higher education and quality assurance organizations, and holding the University Quality Assurance Forum 2020. The QAA responded by commenting on and asking questions about the online implementation of site visit by the NIAD-QE in 2020.

Lastly, the two organizations agreed to keep their active collaboration and cooperation in the future before concluding the meeting.

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