Governance
General Assembly & Committees
- Region 1 Ireland, Netherlands, United Kingdom
- Region 2 Portugal, Spain
- Region 3 Albania, Greece, Israel, Italy, Romania
- Region 4 Belgium, France
- Region 5 Austria, Germany, Switzerland
- Region 6 Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden
- Region 7 Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Ukraine
- Region 8 Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye
EAEVE’s member institutions are organised into eight regions, grouped by linguistic and cultural affinity as set by the association’s founding members. Institutions outside these regions are classified as associate members. Map of the 8 regions and associate members.
The General Assembly
Our members constitute the General Assembly. Traditionally, the GA meets once a year and is the most important decision-making body of the association. Amongst others, it decides on leadership, committee members, membership, and the general direction of the association.
The Executive Committee
Each region nominates one representative from among its members to sit on the Executive Committee, EAEVE's decision-making body. Answerable to the General Assembly, the Committee runs the Association, prepares the Assembly's agenda, oversees activities, budget and membership fee proposals, and implements the Assembly's decisions. Between sessions, it ensures smooth operation, nominates members to other committees, and publishes the evaluation status of member Establishments.
Meet the Executive Committee
The European Committee of Veterinary Education
Each visitation by an EAEVE team results in a visitation report. ECOVE, an independent committee of experts representing both EAEVE and the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE), studies the report and interviews the team's chairperson and coordinator. It then decides whether to grant accreditation, defer it as pending, or deny it.
Meet the ECOVE MembersQuality Assurance
EAEVE is both a membership association and a quality assurance body. Just as its members undergo quality assurance, EAEVE is itself subject to QA processes, which safeguard its independence, the quality of its work, and its service to members. To this end, EAEVE has an internal quality assurance committee (CIQA), undergoes external review by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), publishes all visitation reports on the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR), and works closely with national quality assurance bodies.
CIQA
The Committee on Internal Quality Assurance (CIQA) is a committee that monitors EAEVE's procedures from a quality assurance perspective. It suggests improvements to the Association's internal workings and provides guidance on quality assurance. CIQA also oversees EAEVE's preparation for its own accreditation under ENQA.
Meet the CIQA MembersENQA
The European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), promotes cooperation on quality assurance across European higher education. It works to maintain and improve the quality of higher education and to drive the development of quality assurance in all countries of the Bologna Process. EAEVE has been ENQA accredited since 2018.
External Review of EAEVE 2022(opens in a new tab)EQAR
The European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) is the official register of quality assurance agencies in Europe. Only agencies that have demonstrated substantial compliance with the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG) are listed, as adopted by the 48 countries of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). EAEVE has been EQAR-registered since 2018.
EQAR Registry(opens in a new tab)National Accreditation Bodies
European-level quality assurance developed alongside the European single market, but quality assurance within universities goes back many centuries. Today, many universities are accredited at both national and European level. To reduce the administrative and financial burden this places on our members, EAEVE works with national accreditation agencies to combine their visits. EAEVE still sends the full visitation team, and a representative of the national accreditation body joins it as a full member, while writing an independent report based on their own standards. Following a successful pilot, EAEVE has signed Memoranda of Understanding for combined visitations with the following national accreditation bodies:
Partner Organisations
EAEVE operates within the broad landscape of veterinary medicine. It cooperates with quality assurance agencies in Europe and beyond, and more broadly with representatives of the profession, stakeholders, experts, and students.
The European Coordinating Committee on Veterinary Training
Because of their shared interests, FVE, EBVS, and EAEVE formed the European Coordinating Committee on Veterinary Training (ECCVT) in 2004. The committee meets twice a year to coordinate the policies of its three founding organisations on undergraduate education, postgraduate education, and lifelong learning. Its goal is to advance the veterinary profession and to ensure a comparably high standard of veterinary training at all levels. This cooperation is especially helpful when lobbying in Brussels for revision of the relevant EU directives.
ECCVT Newsletter
International Accreditors Working Group
The International Accreditors Working Group (IAWG) is a collaboration between the organisations that accredit veterinary degree programmes around the world. Its members are the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council (AVBC), the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), the South African Veterinary Council (SAVC), the Veterinary Council of Ireland (VCI). and the European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education (EAEVE).
The group meets at least once a year, online and hosted by a different member each time, to share updates on accreditation standards and processes and to work towards greater consistency between systems.
IVSA (International Veterinary Students' Association)
As an association committed to excellence in veterinary education, students are central to our work. Students serve as equal members on all the EAEVE committees and on all visitation teams. This is possible through our close cooperation with the International Veterinary Students' Association. Our partnership dates back to 2010 and is renewed biannually through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding.
FVE (Federation of Veterinarians of Europe)
The cooperation between the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE) and EAEVE dates back to the founding days of our association, when EAEVE was still a pilot project of the European Commission. Since then, an FVE representative has been part of every visitation team. This is crucial because it ensures that practitioners are part of the evaluation process and that their real-life expertise is taken into account. Further, FVE and EAEVE representatives together form the ECOVE committee, which examines and decides on the visitation report. This cooperation is one of the cornerstones of EAEVE.
EBVS (European Board of Veterinary Specialisation)
EBVS, the European Board of Veterinary Specialisation, is an important partner because it complements EAEVE’s work: while EAEVE safeguards the quality of undergraduate veterinary education, EBVS oversees the standards of postgraduate specialist training across Europe. Together, the two organisations help ensure consistently high standards from the first day of veterinary study to advanced specialisation.
VetCEE (Veterinary Continuous Education in Europe)
VetCEE is an independent body set up jointly by EAEVE, EBVS, FVE and the Union of European Veterinary Practitioners (UEVP), and it accredits national and international continuing education programmes so that continuing professional development is mutually recognised across Europe. Alongside EAEVE’s evaluation of undergraduate education and EBVS’s oversight of specialist training, it completes the quality assurance system for veterinary training.
AAVMC (Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges)
AVBC (Australasian Veterinary Boards Council)
AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association)
UEVP (Union of European Veterinary Practitioners)
VCI (Veterinary Council of Ireland)
WOAH (World Organisation for Animal Health, formerly OIE)
WVA (World Veterinary Association)