ECAQA Director General Saule Sarsenbayeva participated in the 23rd International Congress/Forum on Quality Assessment in Research and Higher Education (FECIES), delivering a presentation titled “Quality Matters: From Accreditation to Outcomes in Medical Education in Kazakhstan.”

The event was held virtually from June 17–19, 2026, offering academics and researchers a global platform to share findings in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, with accepted papers eligible for publication in Q1 academic books.

The 2026 forum featured international experts, such as Amanda Grace Taylor (Senior Director at ABET) and Milica Kavedzic (Deputy Director at ACQAHE), who discussed global trends in quality assurance.

The seminar has been organised with the aim of enhancing the expertise of experts in the accreditation of higher and postgraduate education institutions and their educational programmes (at the levels of basic medical education, residency, master’s and PhD programmes).

The training programme also excluded topics relating to the capacity-building of staff at medical education institutions in the field of quality assurance, based on international European principles and standards for the quality of higher professional education. The following topics were discussed: analysis of the self-assessment report, the external evaluation procedure, the formulation of questions for the experts, the structure and preparation of the expert commission's report, and approaches to developing recommendations for improvement.

The seminar was conducted in an interactive format (work in small groups, an ‘expert commission’ focus group, discussions, an ‘open floor’ session, etc.). Forty-eight experts took part – faculty members and staff from the S.D. Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Caspian University, KMU “KSPH”, Kazakh-Russian Medical University, and research centres and institutes in Almaty. The seminar was held in accordance with the Programme for the training and competence development of experts in conducting external quality assurance of education in the ECAQA.

The seminar has been organised with the aim of enhancing the expertise of experts in the accreditation of organisations providing continuing (CPD) and non-formal education in healthcare, as well as training and simulation centres. The following topics have been excluded from the training programme: Kazakhstan’s experience in ensuring the quality of CPD education; the national legislative and regulatory framework for CPD education; and the methodological and resource framework for organisations providing CPD education.

The main discussion focused on the international initiatives of the WFME and the WHO, and on the Standards for Institutional Accreditation for Continuing and Non-Formal Education Organisations (CPD), developed by the ECAQA on the basis of the 2024 update to the WFME’s Global (International) Standards for Quality Improvement in Continuing Professional Development.

The hybrid format of the seminar enabled 62 faculty members and staff from S.D. Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakh-Russian Medical University, the KMU “KSPH”, the Medical University of Astana, Marat Ospanov West Kazakhstan Medical University, the UMC Corporate Foundation, research centres and institutes in Almaty and Astana, and non-governmental organisations from various cities across Kazakhstan.

The seminar was held in accordance with the ECAQA Training Programme for Experts and Competence Development in Conducting External Quality Assurance of Education.

On 22–24 April 2026, the ENQA Members’ Forum 2026 was held in Budapest, Hungary. The event was organized by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) in cooperation with the Hungarian Accreditation...