AERES and French Educational Quality Assurance

France’s quality assurance efforts in education began in 1984 with the establishment of The National Council for Evaluation of Universities (CNE), an autonomous administrative unit that reported directly to the French President. It’s mission was to evaluate universities, schools and other institutions in the education sector. In 2006, two education laws, the Act on research and the Act on the Liberties and Responsibilities of Universities were passed by the French government in order ensure the quality assurance standards required by France’s participation in the Bologna Process were being met. To meet these higher standards the CNE was replaced by AERES, the Evaluation Agency for Research and Higher Education (NIAD-UE , 2012). AERES is responsible for the evaluation of institutions such as universities, high schools and research organizations. It a also responsible for evaluating the research units of the French National Centre for Scientific Research, as well as bachelor, master, and doctoral programs. Each category has different evaluation process. The one below outlines the quality assurance review process for an institution (AERES, 2013).