The Independent Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (IQAA) organized the Third Annual Eurasian Forum on Quality Assurance in Higher Education. This year's theme "Distance Education in the context of Pandemic: Teaching, Learning and Assessment" covered the most relevant issues in the education system today. The Forum was held in a distant format on the ZOOM platform.

Three hundred participants (286) took part in the Forum, including  38 representatives of foreign organizations from 15 countries  such as Austria, Azerbaijan, Great Britain, Germany, Georgia, Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Mauritius, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Estonia.
The Forum program consisted of two parallel and two panel sessions. This format of the event program allowed all participants to cover as many topics of interest as possible in the context of distance education.

The coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on higher education worldwide. The transition of educational institutions to a distant format allowed us to create a unique experience that participants are ready to share on the Forum site. Along with new approaches to teaching and learning, issues of quality and evaluation of higher education were also discussed.

Opening the event, Head of the IQAA Supervisory Board, ex-Minister of National Economy of RK, ex-Minister of Education and Science of RK, Advisor to the General Director of "Kazakh Institute of Oil and Gas", Professor, Candidate of Economic Sciences Zhaksybek Kulekeyev, noted that in a pandemic, higher education, and all who are faced with a new reality, makes their experience of this forced and rapid digitization.

President of IQAA Sholpan Kalanova in his greeting wished everyone fruitful work, constructive dialogue and effective interaction.

Rector of BSU Elchin Babayev made a presentation on "Organization of the educational process in the context of a pandemic at Baku State University".  Elchin Babayev informed participants about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“Armenia`s military aggression resulted in the occupation by the Armenian armed forces of 20 percent of the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan - Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven adjacent districts. During the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, more than one million Azerbaijanis became IDPs”.

“UN Security Council resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 covered legal, political and humanitarian aspects of the conflict and reaffirmed the principles of its settlement. These principles reaffirmed Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, expressing support for the country’s internationally recognized borders and demanding the immediate withdrawal of all Armenian forces from all occupied territories”.

IQAA is a non-governmental and non-profit organization created for the enhancement of the quality of education and competitiveness of educational institutions; provision of information about institutions to all stakeholders in Kazakhstan and abroad. The mission of the Agency is to assist in the improvement of the quality of education in educational institutions and the enhancement of their competitiveness at national and international levels.