About us

"ARQA" Agency for Recognition and Quality Assurance in Education is a non-profit non-governmental organization established in 2015 to promote and facilitate the development of a quality assurance system in education through institutional and programme accreditation procedures, rankings of educational organizations and independent assessment of the level of specialists’ qualification.

Institutional and programme accreditation procedures

Independent assessment of the specialists' qualification level

Training of external experts

Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan

According to the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Education", the recognition of a national or foreign accreditation body represents the procedure for officially confirming the authority of a legal entity to conduct institutional accreditation of educational organizations and/or specialized accreditation of educational programs. The Register of Recognized Accreditation Bodies (hereinafter – Register 1) is a list of accreditation bodies that are full members of international European quality assurance networks in education and have been recognized by the authorized body in the Republic of Kazakhstan for conducting institutional and/or specialized accreditation. Recognition of an accreditation body in Register 1 is confirmed once every five years. The ARQA agency was included in Register 1 of recognized accreditation bodies for a period of five years by decision of the Republican Accreditation Council. Based on the decision of the Republican Accreditation Council, Order No. 482 of the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated September 27, 2017, was issued regarding the recognition of accreditation bodies and their inclusion in Register 1 for a five-year term.

Mission

Goals

Strategic plan

Dissemination of the ideology of qualitative culture in the Agency’s sphere of activity.

To increase the alignment of higher, postgraduate, as well as technical and vocational education with the best global practices in the field of education through high-quality accreditation activities. To become one of the leading quality assurance agencies operating in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. To increase the number of highly professional experts in the field of quality assurance in education through their training.

The ARQA Strategic Development Plan for 2017–2023 outlines the main directions for the development of the agency and external stakeholders in the field of education, taking into account ARQA’s mission, vision, values, and goals, as well as defining the methods for achieving them. The Strategic Plan was developed by ARQA's management and approved by the Accreditation Council. The full text of the ARQA Strategic Development Plan for 2017–2023 is available in the “Internal Quality Assurance” section.