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On the 29^th of November 2011, the European Alliance for Subject Specific and Professional Accreditation and Quality Assurance (EASPA) was founded in the premises of ASIIN in Düsseldorf, Germany. EASPA constitutes a pan-European platform for a considerable and growing number of subject-specific, disciplinary organized European accreditation and quality assurance networks, which are jointly working towards enhancing the quality of degree programmes, institutions or individual qualifications on the basis of agreed European learning outcomes, competence profiles and qualification frameworks while respecting the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG). By working and collaborating jointly in this field, EASPA makes an important contribution to fostering academic and professional mobility in the European Higher Education Area and beyond.

Among the founding members of our non-profit organization figure the European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education (ENAEE), the European Chemistry Thematic Network Association (ECTNA), the European Countries Biology Association (ECBA), the European Physical Society (EPS), the European Quality Assurance Network for Informatics Education (EQANIE), the ISEKI Food Association (IFA), the Association for Public Administration Accreditation (EAPAA) as well as the European Association of Conservatoires (AEC); the European Federation of Geologists has also recently been admitted into the Alliance, further European networks and international organizations from other disciplines will shortly join.

In the “Düsseldorf Declaration”, which will be fed into the next Bologna meeting of the altogether 47 ministers of education at the end of April 2012 in Bukarest, the central aims of EASPA and its contribution to a successful implementation of the Bologna ideas and the realization of the European Higher Education Area are formulated. Mrs Evangelia Varella from Greece (the Chairwoman of the European Chemistry Thematic Network Association ECTNA) has been elected Vice President of EASPA, I have the honor to serve as founding President of EASPA for the next two years.

The members of EASPA are looking forward to establishing close links with our “counterparts” in other continents, joining hands in promoting the cause of disciplinary accreditation and quality assurance on a global scale. This goal is supported and actively promoted by INQAAHE, which has decided to provide a global forum for its members engaged in this realm. On behalf of all EASPA members and as a member of the INQAAHE board of directors, I extend my very best regards to all of you and hope that 2012 will see the first examples of fruitful cooperation between our organizations.

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