I.    Legal Background 

·        the Commission and its main tasks are defined in the higher education act:

·       the Commission attends and evaluates the quality and effectiveness of the educational, research, artistic and expert activities;

·        the Commission works accordingly to the regulations which have to be determine in collaboration with the senates of the high school institutions;

·        the Commission has to obtain the opinion of the students;

·        the Commission reports once a year about the state of quality in higher education in Republic of Slovenia to the Council for higher education of Republic of Slovenia, Ministry of higher education, science and technology and the Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technological Development of the National Assembly; the report is publicly announced;

·        higher education institutions in Slovenia: 4 universities and 17 free-standing higher education institutions.

II.       Tasks 

·        performs the institutional external evaluations of the higher education institutions in Republic of Slovenia (since 2006)

·        coordinates activities of higher education institutions;

·        develops the evaluation methodology Criteria for monitoring, assessment and assurance of quality in the higher education institutions, study programmes, science and research, and in artistic and professional work (2004);

·        enhances awareness of the importance of the quality assurance importance among faculties and the management of higher education institutions (deans, heads of institutes and chairs);

·        influences the mission of universities and free-standing higher education institutions in accordance with the development trends of the universities in European Union (European Policy Statement, Bologna declaration, Lisbon declaration);

·        collects knowledge and disseminates it to the wider higher education area (organises seminars lectured by domestic and internal experts);

·        follows the idea of the Bologna declaration.

III.      Organisation

·        the Commission was founded in 1996, in 2000 it was reorganised;

·        the Commission consists of 24 members: 18 university professors, 3 professors of free-standing higher education institutions and 3 students;

·        the Commission is composed of the representatives of all scientific and artistic disciplines and expert areas;

·        the members of the Commission work on a voluntary basis.

 IV.     Present and Future 

·        after performing the institutional external evaluations at 4 higher education institutions in the Republic of Slovenia (2006) the Commission will perform the institutional external evaluations at the 10 higher education institutions in Republic of Slovenia in accordance with the Criteria for monitoring, assessment and assurance of quality in the higher education institutions, study programmes, science and research, and in artistic and professional work (2007),

·        the Commission will start the proceedings to became the member of the ENQA (2007).