Abstract
This paper examines how external quality assurance developed in the Bologna signatory countries, especially whether external quality assurance has been designed and conducted in accordance with the “Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area” (ESG). In its second part, the paper analyses how current external quality assurance regimes at national level respond to the primary responsibility of higher education institutions for quality in teaching and learning and to the core function of internal quality assurance as two of the core principles of the ESG. By doing so, the paper examines the impact of external quality assurance on the autonomy of higher education institutions in times of diversifying and competitive higher education systems. The paper is mainly based on four recently conducted surveys of ENQA, “Quality procedures in the European Higher Education Area and beyond – second ENQA survey” (2007/2008); “Evaluation of the reports on agency reviews (2005–2009)” (2010), “Quality Procedures in the European higher education Area-Visions for the Future” (ongoing), and “Mapping the implementation and application of the European Standards and guidelines” (ongoing).
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Notes
- 1.
David Woodhouse, Quality Assurance Today (unpublished paper 2010) lists 20 purposes: (1) Assist the higher education institution (HEI) to set up and develop its internal QMS (institutional development or capacity building); (2) Assist the HEI to improve its quality (quality improvement); (3) Evaluate the HEI’s systems for achieving their objectives (i.e. purposes) or standards, and the effectiveness of these systems (audit); (4) Measure the quality and/or standards of the HEI according to some (internal or external) yardstick (assessment); (5) Provide an explicit comparison between one or more institutions, either within the same country or internationally (benchmarking); (6) Provide a ranking of the HEIs according to some criteria relating to performance (ranking); (7) Determine whether the HEI can be permitted to offer specified programs, or qualify for some other benefit (a gatekeeper role, usually termed accreditation); (8) Exclude potential overseas education from coming into the country (gatekeeper); (9) Close down low quality, low standard institutions (often employed in an early phase of proliferation of small private institutions) (policeman); (10) Define and certify qualifications (qualifications authority); (11) Establish and maintain a framework of qualifications (framework); (12) Assess and record learning, including experiential learning, to enable credit accumulation and transfer (credit accumulation and transfer); (13) Steer the HEI in particular directions, in terms of planning, scope or methods (steering or transformation; relates to fitness of purpose); (14) Provide a report on the HEI as a basis for (government) funding (funding); (15) Provide a report on the HEI to show how it has used the funds and other resources it has enjoyed (accountability); (16) Monitor the financial viability of the HEI (viability); (17) Check the HEI’s compliance with legal and other requirements (compliance); (18) Provide independent information about the HEI for various constituencies (prospective students, employers, etc.) (information provision); (19) Report on the quality and standing of the HE sector as a whole (sector report); (20) Collate the results and outcomes of the activities of other EQAs (co-ordination).
- 2.
The following is based on ENQA (2011, 26–34).
- 3.
See the mapESG project results; to be published in 2012.
- 4.
See for further details for Germany: Amourgis et al. (2009); The Netherlands: http://nvao.com/accreditation
- 5.
See the report on the New Approach to Quality Assurance for 2011–2014: http://www.hsv.se/download/18.328ff76512e968468bc80004249/1103R-quality-evaluation-system-2011-2014.pdf
- 6.
See as a brief introduction: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/37/49/45755875.pdf
- 7.
- 8.
∎.
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∎.
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Hopbach, A. (2012). External Quality Assurance Between European Consensus and National Agendas. In: Curaj, A., Scott, P., Vlasceanu, L., Wilson, L. (eds) European Higher Education at the Crossroads. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3937-6_15
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