A3ES is a member of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), which aims to contribute to improving the quality of European higher education and act as a driving force behind the development of quality assurance in all the countries that signed the Bologna Declaration.

Relations with ENQA and EQAR will be the first order of concern, as it is accreditation (ENQA) and the European register (EQAR) that give A3ES's decisions full legitimacy. It is this legitimacy that guarantees Portuguese higher education institutions the credibility and capacity to cooperate with European institutions, by recognising study cycles and other training, encouraging mobility in the various sectors of the academic communities, the possibility of structuring joint R&D projects or creating consortia to intervene in other thematic areas.

A3ES' accreditation by European bodies means that, at national level, the evaluations and accreditations carried out by A3ES (study programmes and institutions) are not only recognised at European level, but are also considered equivalent and can be easily compared.

Find out more about the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) here