The Icelandic Quality Enhancement Framework (QEF) provides an environment within which accredited Icelandic higher education institutions secure the quality and enhancement of their activities.
The main objective of the QEF is to drive enhancement in the Icelandic higher education sector and create information and knowledge about quality in higher education. This is done by supporting institutions in identifying good practice and key challenges, and by giving recommendations for quality enhancement. This enhancement-led approach is at the heart of the QEF, simultaneously allowing institutions to demonstrate public accountability, quality and transparency.
The QEF is designed in close dialogue with the Icelandic higher education sector. While firmly rooted in the national context, the QEF is benchmarked against standards and approaches to quality assurance across the European Higher Education Area and designed fulfil national requirements for quality assurance in higher education.
The framework's current and third cycle runs from 2024 to 2029.
IAQA maintains a quality management system based on its quality policy. As part of the quality management system, the QEF undergoes regular external and internal evaluations.
Evaluation activities include ongoing internal monitoring and improvement of procedures and documentation, stakeholder feedback, external panel feedback, and periodic reviews involving observations and analysis by external experts. The main aim of periodic review is to reflect on IAQA policies and activities, in particular the QEF, as well as demonstrating compliance with the ESG.
Points of reference for review may change throughout each cycle, i.e., when the ESG is reviewed, or as public data systems evolve. At the end of each QEF cycle, IAQA produces a thematic analysis of the findings of IWRs across the sector as a whole.