The Icelandic Agency for Quality Assurance (IAQA) is an independent quality assurance agency, recognised by the Icelandic government. Our mission is to safeguard the quality of Icelandic higher education through an enhancement-led approach.
Main functions are:
- to develop the Quality Enhancement Framework (QEF) and ensure its fitness in line with Icelandic, European and international developments;
- to carry out external quality assurance reviews for all higher education institutions in Iceland with the aim of ensuring that they enhance the quality of their operations in an ongoing manner;
- to contribute to and promote knowledge in the field of quality assurance in Iceland;
- to manage commissioned reviews requested by the Icelandic authorities or other stakeholders.
IAQA acts autonomously and works independently of higher education institutions, the government and other stakeholders. We benchmark our work against the most up-to-date standards and approaches to quality assurance across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) while also fulfilling national legal requirements for quality assurance in higher education.
Principles and Values
- Ownership of quality. Higher education institutions (HEIs) hold primary responsibility for their internal quality assurance. Our primary purpose is to support Icelandic HEIs as autonomous institutions in engaging with external quality assurance and fulfilling their responsibilities for the management and enhancement of quality.
- Enhancing quality. Our framework is enhancement-led and developed to support Icelandic HEIs, not simply in terms of the basic assurance of quality, but also in the continuing enhancement of all aspects of their activities.
- Involvement of students. Students are involved as active participants in the assurance and enhancement of their learning. Our framework embraces all students, regardless of physical ability or mental health status, gender, sexual orientation, racial or ethnic background, nationality, religion, residence or financial situation.
- International and Icelandic perspectives. Our fit-for-purpose framework is firmly rooted in the Icelandic context while maintaining a balance between local developments and international perspectives. As higher education is increasingly delivered through international partnerships and collaborations, we embrace both an inward- and outward-looking approach.
- Independence and partnership. We operate with full independence, and our framework is managed outside of any vested interest or instruments of control. At the same time, we recognise the importance and value of dialogue with our stakeholders through appropriate fora.
- Transparency. We emphasise transparency through availability of non-confidential material, guidance and resources, and regular dialogue and communication with the sector, as well as support through conferences, meetings and other events.