Quality assurance in higher education is governed by Act no. 269/2018 Coll. on quality assurance in higher education (Zákon č. 269/2018 Z.z. o zabezpečovaní kvality vysokoškolského vzdelávania) and Act no. 131/2002 Coll. on higher education (Zákon č. 131/2002 Z.z. o vysokých školách ). The current legislation requires that higher education institutions assure the quality of their activity by implementing an internal system of quality, its continuous development, and external evaluation by an independent institution. 

Responsible bodies

Higher education institution

In accordance with the Act on higher education, the higher education institution is responsible for the quality assurance of the education provided. It does so by means of creating an internal system of quality and annual reports. 

Ministry of Education, Research, Development, and Youth

The Ministry of Education, as a state administration body, participates in quality assurance in higher education. Within its competence, the ministry:

• creates, updates, and publishes the long-term goals of the Ministry of Education every year
• creates and publishes an annual report on the state of higher education every year,
• discusses and assesses long-term goals of higher education institutions,
• assesses compliance with generally binding legal regulations in higher education,
• assesses management of public higher education institutions’ funds and private higher education institutions’ funds,
• concludes performance agreements with higher education institutions and assesses the fulfilment of measurable indicators.

The Slovak Accreditation Agency for Higher Education

External quality assurance of higher education is within the competence of the Slovak Accreditation Agency for Higher Education (hereinafter only ‘Agency’). The agency is a public body that

• decides on the compliance of the internal system and its implementation with the internal system standards,
• decides on the granting (or withholding or withdrawal) of accreditation of the study programme, accreditation of the habilitation procedure and accreditation of the inauguration procedure,
• issues standards for the internal quality assurance system for higher education, standards for study programmes and standards for habilitation and inauguration procedures. The public shall have the opportunity to comment on the draft standards before they are adopted,
• oversees the implementation of the standards,
• issues a methodology for the assessment of the standards, the principles for registration on the list of assessors and the requirements for registration on the list of assessors,
• decides on the discontinuance of an application for approval to operate as a private higher education institution.

The  Agency's mission is to improve the quality of education through modern tools that are harmonised with the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ESG 2015). It has replaced the activities of the existing Accreditation Commission (which acts as an advisory body to the Government of the Slovak Republic) in assessing applications of higher education institutions, and also takes over the competence of the relevant decisions of the Minister of Education, Research, Development, and Youth of the Slovak Republic. Accreditation activities follow accreditation standards, which are published by the agency. 

In 2023, the Agency was registered in the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education, and in February 2024, it became a member of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. The Agency is required to request an assessment of its activities by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education at least once every five years.

Approaches and methods for quality assurance

Internal evaluation

Approval of the act on quality assurance in 2018 created a legislative and institutional framework for the implementation of systems of quality assurance in higher education in compliance with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG). As a result, the system of accreditation of individual study programmes transitioned to a system of institutional accreditation.

The responsibility for the quality of the education provided was transferred to the providers themselves, i.e. higher education institutions. Changes are implemented through the internal system for quality assurance in higher education; the efficiency increases with external evaluation at the expert level.

Higher education institutions need to have a functional internal system of quality. The goal of the internal system of quality is to assure quality of all activities through defining the higher education institution’s quality assurance policies and procedures.

A higher education institution’s policy for quality assurance includes tools, organisation, allocation of responsibility, level of actors’ (e.g. students’) engagement, manner of introduction, use, monitoring and assessment of the quality assurance system.

The internal quality assurance system regulates:

• the rules for the creation, approval, implementation and modification of each study programme;
• the selection of teachers for each course of study;
• the admission procedure;
• the approval of the thesis supervisors and the thesis supervisors;
• student assessment
• monitoring and periodic evaluation of study programmes,
• reviewing suggestions;
• carrying out the creative activities of the higher education institution
• cooperation with specialised teaching establishments in practical teaching and the method of verifying their performance;
• cooperation with external educational institutions involved in the implementation of the third-level study programme,
• determining the requirements for the selection of higher education teachers,
• ensuring the professional development of higher education teachers, researchers and artistic staff of the higher education institution;
• verifying that sufficient spatial, material, technical, informational and personnel support is provided for the implementation of study programmes;
• collecting, analysing and using the information necessary for the effective delivery of the study programme; the regular publication of up-to-date, adequate and qualitative information on study programmes and their graduates; and the design, approval, implementation and modification of each training programme leading to a micro-certificate

The Agency assesses the compliance of the internal quality system with the accreditation standards for the internal system.

External evaluation

Slovak Accreditation Agency for higher education, as an independent institution, is responsible for assessing the quality assurance of the higher education provided.

The agency pursues its activity mainly through procedures initiated upon the higher education institution’s request or upon the request of an applicant for state permission, or on its own initiative. 

External evaluation (accreditation) usually takes place in four stages:

1. assessment of applications,  application documentation, and available information,
2. assessment on the spot – by visiting the higher education institution,
3. processing of the evaluation report by the executive board’s working group, and
4. agency’s executive board’s statement or decision.

To assess a specific application, the agency forms working groups out of persons listed in the list of assessors (zoznam posudzovateľov). The composition of work groups depends on the study programme to be assessed or the higher education institution’s activity on one hand and the qualification, experience, and competencies of assessors registered in the list of assessors on the other. At least one student is appointed to each working group (except for the assessment of accreditation of the inauguration and habilitation procedure). The agency carries out continuous quality checks of assessors. Rules for creating working groups are defined by the internal regulation ‘Guidelines for Registration and Deregistration of Assessors and the Creation of Working groups’ (Zásady na zápis do zoznamu posudzovateľov, vyradenie z tohto zoznamu a vytváranie pracovných skupín).

The working group will create an evaluation report for the application or a request, based on which the agency makes a decision or gives a statement. The working group bases its evaluation report on the expert assessment of the documentation, information acquired by visiting the higher education institution, available data, and consultation with interested persons. In the evaluation report, the working group also states facts, which served as the basis for the group’s conclusions, documentation assessment procedure, the assessment of the degree of compliance with individual standards, the shortcomings found, recommendations for the participant of the procedure, a proposal for the agency’s decision or statement, and names and surnames of working group members. 

The higher education institution may also request another agency registered with EQAR and ENQA to prepare an evaluation report on the compliance of the internal system with the standards for the internal system, and the Executive Board will subsequently make a statement based on this report.

Agency’s working groups evaluate compliance with the standards and measures for assurance of the internal system compliance, and they can impose the following remedies 

• remedy of deficiencies which cause non-compliance of the internal system or its implementation with the standards for the internal system,
• suspension of the study programme,
• order to cancel the study programme,
• cancellation of the study programme,
• restriction on the creation and alteration of study programmes.

Agency can impose several remedies simultaneously. 

In cooperation with professionals and interested parties, the agency created and published accreditation standards in compliance with the ESG European Standards and Guidelines. Accreditation standards include:

• Standards for the internal system of quality assurance (Štandardy pre vnútorný systém zabezpečovania kvality),
• Standards for the study programme (Štandardy pre študijný program) and
• Standards for the habilitation and inauguration procedure (Štandardy pre habilitačné konanie a inauguračné konanie). 

Standards refer to a set of requirements that are to be met for the relevant accreditation to be granted.

The processes of assessing study programmes, internal systems of quality, habilitation procedures, and inauguration procedures are based on the Methodology of the Evaluation of Standards (Metodika na vyhodnocovanie štandardov) and are elaborated in the guidelines for the administration of the agency’s accreditation procedures. 

In assessing the internal system of the higher education institution, the Agency shall evaluate the level of compliance with each standard, indicating any weaknesses and recommendations identified. The study programme standards focus mainly on the level of:

• spatial, material, technical, information and personnel provision of study programs,
• creative activities of the higher education institution in the relevant field of study,
• taking into account the latest knowledge from the relevant field of study,
• requirements for successful completion of study according to the study program,
• graduates, in particular through the achievements of higher education and their compliance with the required level of the national qualifications framework;
• requirements for filling posts of university teachers and others.

The standards for a study programme may furthermore regulate other specifics, e.g. individual fields of study or types of study programmes (teacher-oriented, career-oriented, etc.). The Agency continuously monitors the compliance of the implementation of the relevant study programme with the submitted application for accreditation of the study programme and the standards for the study programme.

Standards for habilitation and inauguration procedures are a set of requirements, the fulfilment of which is conditional on the granting of accreditation of the habilitation procedure and accreditation of the inauguration procedure. The habilitation and inauguration process is accredited separately each time an application is submitted to the Agency.

In February 2025, a European approach to quality assurance of joint study programmes was also introduced. Collaborating HEIs can choose the Slovak Higher Education Accreditation Agency, another agency registered in EQAR and ENQA or accredit the joint study programme through the internal system as long as all collaborating HEIs have institutional accreditation. 

The higher education institution is obliged to harmonise its internal system, the study programmes conducted, the rules for conducting the habilitation procedure and the rules for conducting the inauguration procedure within 12 months from the date of entry into force of the change in the relevant standards. The higher education institution is obliged to request the agency to assess the institution’s internal system at least once every six years. The agency continuously monitors compliance with standards for the internal system at least once every two years. 

When assessing the internal system, the Agency also takes into account the fulfilment of the standards for the study programme and, if the higher education institution has been granted accreditation of the habilitation procedure or accreditation of the inauguration procedure, the Agency also takes into account the fulfilment of the standards for the habilitation procedure and the inauguration procedure.

Another element of external evaluation is performance agreements, in which HEIs commit themselves to measurable indicators linked to quality improvement. The funding of individual higher education institutions is linked to the fulfilment of these indicators. They are divided into four thematic headings:

• quality and attractive education,
• quality science, research and artistic activity,
• societal impacts, non-academic and regional cooperation,
• internationalisation of higher education,

One of the indicators of performance agreements is a student satisfaction survey, which schools can use to obtain additional funding.