Quality Assurance as an impactful tool for Tertiary Education today and tomorrow
Dates: 3-6 February 2026 | Sun City, South Africa
We are thrilled to announce that the 2026 INQAAHE forum will be held in Sun City, South Africa between 03-06 February 2026. Under the theme of, “Quality Assurance as an impactful tool for Tertiary Education today and tomorrow”. The INQAAHE Forum provides the global tertiary education and quality assurance (QA) community with a unique opportunity to explore impactful dimensions of quality assurance in the context of the globalized landscape of 21st-century higher education.”
This conference will examine the impact of QA in ensuring quality amid expanding access to tertiary education, particularly across the African continent. It will specifically:
As tertiary education faces unprecedented global, political, technological, and social shifts, quality assurance must rise to meet the challenges—not only to maintain standards but to lead the charge in shaping more equitable, resilient, and future-ready systems. This Forum invites quality assurance professionals, policymakers, educators, and institutional leaders to engage in a forward-looking dialogue on the impact of QA in diverse and dynamic contexts.
Subtopic 1: Building trust in quality assurance systems across stakeholders.
This subtopic will examine how trust in QA can be fostered at multiple levels: governments, institutions, students, and employers. It will consider how QA can enable responsible autonomy, build confidence in internal and external processes, and counteract credential mills and superficial accountability mechanisms. Particular attention will be paid to how QA bodies can earn legitimacy through transparency, maturity, and stakeholder engagement, and to the role QA bodies can play in respect to the increasing prevalence of fraudulent qualifications and to threats to academic integrity in higher education.
Subtopic 2: Enhancing the social and labor market relevance of macro and micro-credentials through QA.
This subtopic will explore the intersection of qualifications, micro-credentials, quality assurance, and social and labor market needs. It will address how QA can ensure the value and recognition of higher education learning through qualifications and micro-credentials, not only for learners but also for employers and industry actors and for responsiveness to critical social challenges at local and global level. Discussions will spotlight international collaborations, consortium models, and emerging practices including cross-border accreditation or recognition across Africa and beyond.
Subtopic 3: Leveraging technology and AI to strengthen impactful quality assurance.
This subtopic will assess how technological advancements, including generative AI, can improve QA practices, enable data-driven decision-making, and support agile responses to educational innovation. It will explore the digitalization of QA systems, the integrity of online learning, and how new tools can enhance both monitoring and learning outcomes as well as the integration as well as the responsible use of AI tools in QA processes.
Subtopic 4: Widening access and growing participation while safeguarding quality.
This subtopic will examine the impact of QA in ensuring quality amid expanding access to tertiary education, particularly across the African continent, and to growing participation in contexts where the higher education system is challenged through rapidly decreasing participation It will reflect how QA frameworks can uphold standards in systems under demographic pressure, and balance access goals with meaningful quality outcomes for diverse learners.
For further information and questions regarding the submission of proposals, please contact the INQAAHE office at:
The International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE)
Enric Granados 33
08007 Barcelona, SPAIN
Tel: +34 93 268 89 50 / +27 12 349 3840
Email: secretariat@inqaahe.org / inqaaheforum2026@che.ac.za