Constituency
The ECTE’s constituency (client base) is generally identified as providers of Christian theological education. This constituency can be further defined and differentiated as follows. Providers are:
- European. The ECTE focuses primarily on European providers of theological education. The ECTE does, however, have an important constituency of providers in the Middle East, and it may serve providers in other regions in accordance with the ICETE Comity regulations.
- Involved in Christian theological education. Although the ECTE is historically rooted in the evangelical faith tradition, it aims to serve the broader landscape of Christian theological education. All providers associated with the ECTE generally endorse the statement of faith and theological orientation of their own relevant faith-based stakeholders and communities.
- Involved in higher formal education. The ECTE serves providers offering tertiary, higher education learning opportunities. It does not offer quality assurance services for vocational education or non-formal education.
- Can hold different status in the EHEA. The ECTE serves both higher education institutions and alternative providers of higher education learning opportunities.
- Can hold different status in the ECTE. The ECTE offers three options to theological providers:
- Regular membership. Listing as a Member Institution gives voting rights in the ECTE General Assembly. This option is reserved to theological providers that identify with an evangelical faith-tradition.
- Regular membership with accredited status. In addition to regular membership, providers obtain ECTE institutional accreditation and/or programme accreditation and are listed in the ECTE Review Directory.
- Accredited status. Providers obtain ECTE institutional accreditation and/or programme accreditation and are listed in the ECTE Review Directory. This option is open to all providers of Christian theological education.
Affiliations
EEA. Besides serving European institutions, the ECTE also seeks to cultivate a meaningful relationship with churches, denominations and Christian organizations that are based in Europe. These relationships are particularly important as the ECTE works to keep theological education relevant and sensitive to the needs of the churches. The ECTE is affiliated with the European Evangelical Alliance (EEA) https://www.europeanea.org.
ENQA. The ECTE values the importance of educational QA contexts in Europe and is an Affiliate of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) since 2007. The ECTE’s standards and guidelines, certification framework and QA processes are designed to reflect the Bologna Process and the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG) in use in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). See https://enqa.eu
EQAR. The ECTE is currently an applicant for the European Higher Education Register See https://www.eqar.eu. More information on the application process is available here
FEET. As a subject-specific network and quality assurance agency dealing with the discipline of theology, the ECTE is a full member of the Fellowship of European Evangelical Theologians. See feet-europe.org
ICETE. The ECTE is a founding member of the International Council for Evangelical Theological Education (ICETE) through which it is linked to nine evangelical quality assurance agencies across the world representing over 1200 training institutes of theology. See http://icete.info. Since 2019, the ECTE substantially adheres to the ICETE Standards and Guidelines for Global Evangelical Theological Education (SG-GETE 2019) and refers to the ICETE Qualification Comparability Framework thus enhancing ECTE’s accreditation within a global comparability scheme.
INQAHEE. The ECTE values the importance of higher educational quality standards worldwide and is a full member of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE). The International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) is a world-wide association of near 300 organisations active in the theory and practice of quality assurance in higher education. The great majority of its members are quality assurance agencies that operate in many different ways, although the Network also welcomes (as associate members) other organisations that have an interest in QA in HE1. See https://www.inqaahe.org
Stakeholders
Stakeholders of the ECTE include:
A. Direct stakeholders, interacting directly with the quality assurance processes of the ECTE.
- A1 – Providers of theological education (HEIs and alternative providers) – these include both accredited institutions and member institutions
- A2 – Peer subject-specific agencies
- A3 – European QA authorities
- A4 – Global theological education networks
- A5 – ECTE staff
- A6 – Peer experts (VETs)
B. Indirect internal stakeholders, interacting internally with the quality of their institutions and indirectly with the quality assurance processes of the ECTE.
- B1 – Theology students
- B2 – Academic faculty
- B3 – Institutional leadership
- B4 – Administrative staff
- B5 – Governing boards
C. Indirect external stakeholders, interacting externally with the quality of the institutions they are involved with and indirectly with the quality assurance processes of the ECTE.
- C1 – Ecclesial entities
- C2 – Graduate employers
- C3 – Funders and fundraisers
- C4 – Other external partners