The Minister of Education and Science of Georgia Dimitri Shashkini announced the fact of establishing new Public Law Entity “National Center for Education Quality Assurance”.
National Center for Education Quality Assurance is the successor of National Center for Education Accreditation. The main functions of the new center will be:
- Make recommendations concerning education quality improvement
- Authorization of general, professional and higher education institutions and accreditation of educational programmes
- Verification of educational documents issued in Georgia including legalization and apostil
- Recognition of education obtained on an occupied territory
- Recognition of education obtained in Foreign Countries
- Students Mobility
- Educational Institutions’ register administration
On July 21, 2010 law amendments were introduced according to which all general, professional and higher education institutions should be authorized.
There are 70 accredited and around 200 licensed educational institutions in Georgia. In licensed higher education institutions students are enrolled without passing National Exams. Around 18,000 students study in these higher educational institutions and these graduates are not able to work in the public sector because their diplomas aren’t recognized by state.
Authorization process will support the development of higher education institutions. With the help of the new center, authorized higher education institutions will be able to pass accreditation and they will have opportunity to receive state financing with the vouchers.