Frameworks and Standards for IQA

This chapter explores the frameworks and standards that support internal quality assurance (IQA) in higher education, with a particular focus on the developing landscape in Azerbaijan and other post-Soviet countries. It examines how international reference systems—primarily the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG 2015) and the European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for Vocational Education and Training (EQAVET)—serve as policy anchors for national QA reforms and institutional practices. Section 1 reviews the global influence and regional adaptation of these frameworks, emphasizing challenges of policy transfer and cultural translation in centralized systems. Section 2 focuses on national and institutional standards in Azerbaijan, highlighting both regulatory advances and institutional ambivalence in implementing IQA. Section 3 analyzes the interdependence between IQA and accreditation, arguing that their alignment is essential for credibility and effectiveness. The chapter contends that while formal compliance with international standards has increased, genuine internalization remains uneven and context-dependent. At the end successful IQA systems in the post-Soviet space depend not only on alignment with global norms but also on national policy clarity, institutional autonomy, and the cultivation of a quality culture embedded in everyday academic governance.