About EAQUALS

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EAQUALS, the European Association for Quality Language Services, offers the only widely accepted European quality standard for language teaching provision.

EAQUALS is an association of providers of language services, founded in 1991, with over 100 Accredited members in 20 different countries. EAQUALS grants its quality label to institutions that meet its high inspection standards.

The EAQUALS Charters provide clear specific quality guarantees, and enable those who need to recommend or take decisions on language learning provision to choose reliable partners.

EAQUALS contributes to European projects related to language teaching, including the recent development in cooperation with ALTE (Association of Language Testers in Europe) of an electronic version of an EAQUALS/ALTE European Language Portfolio for adults (www.eelp.org). It also publishes training materials on different aspects of language teaching management.

Membership

Membership is open to private or state institutions which are involved in the delivery of quality language training or are, in some other way, committed to the achievement of excellence in this area. There are two types of members:

Accredited Member

Accredited membership of EAQUALS is open to any organisation providing foreign language education and training, irrespective of the language(s) offered or whether the organisation is privately owned or in the public sector. Organisations providing language training to company employees are also eligible.

To become a Member, language training institutions must prove their full adherence to EAQUALS Charters through submitting themselves to the inspection, which is repeated every three years, or more frequently if deemed to be necessary.

Only institutions that have been successfully inspected can be accredited as Full Members and display the EAQUALS quality mark. Seven of the Full Members are also Founder Members: these are the institutions and organisations which were jointly responsible for establishing the Association and developing its structure and principles.

Associate Member

Organisations which support EAQUALS aims of promoting quality in language education in Europe and beyond are invited to apply for associate membership of EAQUALS.

Typical Associate Members include national associations of language course providers, national cultural agencies, and providers of language examinations. Individual language teaching institutions, such as colleges or schools may not become Associate Members. They are invited to apply for accredited membership instead (for further information about accredited membership see above).

Applications for Associate membership are examined by the Associate Membership Steering Committee. Associate Members are subject to the Charter for Associate Members.