What is the quality provision in European cross-border higher education today?

1. What is the quality provision in European cross-border higher education today? Author: Don Osborn

2. The Need to Globilise Higher Education • to answer the needs of employers for globalised recruits • to respond to EU policy in terms of the mobility of people across member states • to exploit the full potential of cross-border university partnerships

3. The Current Difficulties • limited transparency and readability of qualifications making them not very portable across countries • misinformation concerning some qualifications • unfair and unreliable recognition procedures across countries

4. From Historical Differences • Three types of university models: • the Humboldtian model (Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands) • freedom of study and teaching • independent research • independent study • the Napoleonic model (France & Spain) • heavily centralised • an elitist approach (les grandes écoles) • the Anglo-Saxon model (USA & UK) • the emphasis on the personal development of the student

5. bachelor’s, master’s & doctorate quality assurance & accreditation mechanisms ECTS compatible credits Interpreting Quality • Bologna (June 1999) & the golden triangle of goals:

6. Interpreting Quality • Quality assurance: what we are trying to do with a check that we’re actually doing it • Quality enhancement: what those who use our systems say about their experience and how we amend our systems to make them better • Accreditation: how we show outsiders that we are following quality assurance and quality enhancement

7. Accreditation • getting it means that we have attained the minimum required level of quality • it will not necessarily concentrate on our weaknesses

8. Quality Enhancement • this shows how we’re improving things • it will put forward the weaknesses in a system that we’re currently amending

9. The Link with Total Quality Management • TQM is linked to customer satisfaction • but who is the customer in higher education? • the student? – after all, he/she is paying • the employer? – after all, he/she gets to use the finished product • Can we talk of the raw material – the process of transformation – the finished product in higher education?

10. Total Quality Management • It has little to do with accreditation because... • in TQM, being good enough is not adequate • we plan, teach, check, revise and test to see what our students may have missed

11. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • The European Higher Education Area • the aims of the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region: • through the joint declaration of European Ministers of Education in Bologna, June 19th, 1999 • to facilitate the recognition of qualifications across Europe • to ensure that European education becomes a world quality reference

12. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • a study of the progress made in four countries since the Bologna Declaration: • Sweden • the UK • France • Estonia • Greece

13. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • Sweden(39 HEIs) • the stakeholders • the higher education institution (autonomy) • the students (information) • the Ministry of Education and Science (responsibility for HEIs) • the National Agency for Higher Education (monitoring HE) • the legal background • 1993 Higher Education Act • Higher Education Ordinance

14. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • Sweden • 1999 • undergraduate: • three-year Bachelor degree • one year Master degree • graduate: • four-year Ph.D. • institutional quality audits every 6 years • students’ role in curriculum and course design • difficulties of comparing programmes

15. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • Sweden • 2007 (from September) • undergraduate: • three-year Bachelor degree • one year Master degree • graduate: • four-year Ph.D. • subject & programme audits (every 6 years) • thematic evaluations, e.g. • internationalising universities • the role of universities in Swedish society • students’ role still strong

16. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • The United Kingdom(126 universities with additional HEIs) • the stakeholders: • the Quality Assurance Agency (to safeguard standards of education & promote continual enhancement in quality) • Higher Education Funding Council (a separate council for England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland) • to distribute public funding to universities and colleges • to monitor spending • to monitor quality in teaching • to provide guidance on good practice • the government through the Minister of State for Higher Education & Lifelong Learning • the university

17. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • The United Kingdom • 1999 • undergraduate: • Bachelor’s over 3 years • Bachelor’s (Honours) over 4 years (3 in certain universities) • graduate: • one year Master degree • 3-year full-time Ph D • institutional audits from 2002 by the QAA every 5 years • the difficulty of ensuring a response to the needs of employers

18. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • The United Kingdom • 2007 • revisions to institutional audit from 2006 to correspond to European Standards and Guidelines for QA in HE • students’ participation in institutional audit by a written report to the QAA • still a disparity between Bachelor’s Honours degrees • a highly centralised system encouraging quality enhancement • strong link to university funding through the HEFC’s code of practice

19. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • France (85 universities, 3 universities of technology, «30 national polytechnic institutions, specialised schools of higher education) • the stakeholders: • universities supervised by the ministry of higher education and research • grandes écoles under the responsibility of the ministry but mostly private (often divisions of chambers of commerce) • National Council for Higher Education & Research (CNESER) • National Evaluation Committee (CNE) • Conference des Grandes Ecoles (two chapters)

20. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • France • 1999 • 1st cycle of studies to two-year higher education diplomas • 2nd cycle : • year 1 to licence (bachelor’s) • year 2 to Maïtrise • 3rd cycle: one year to: • DEA (research masters) • DESS (specialised masters) – equivalent to Grande Ecole diploma • DEA followed by three-year doctorate

21. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • France • 2007 • harmonisation with Bologna • three-year licence (bachelor’s) • two further years to Master (equivalent Grande Ecole diploma) • state approval of all institutional diplomas (universities & private schools) • private schools looking more towards accreditation by international bodies (AMBA, EQUIS, AACSB)

22. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • Estonia(18 universities, 13 applied HEI’s, 17 vocational educational institutions) • the stakeholders: • Estonian Ministry of Education • Estonian HE Accreditation Centre • Estonian HE Quality Assessment Council • network of quality assurance committees and agencies from 14 CEE countries

23. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • Estonia • 1999 • reforms based on European & American QA systems • undergraduate: • Bakalaureusekraad in 3 or 4 years • graduate: • Magistrikraad after 5 years of HE • Doktorikraad after a further 4 years • national accreditation system (since 1997) based on: • self evaluation • foreign peer review

24. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • Estonia • 2007 • more university places than national students, therefore • looking at recruitment of foreign nationals • institutional accreditation (since Universities Act 2002) • full • conditional • programme accreditation • transition to a 3 + 2 cycle from 1992

25. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • Greece(21 publicly-funded universities, 14 technical education institutes & specialised academies) • the stakeholders • the state (through the 1975 Constitution and through funding) • Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs • the participants • university faculty • students

26. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • Greece • 1999 • state monopoly on HE • Ptychio Penepistimion after 4 years • Post-graduate Diploma of Specialisation after at least one further year • faculty and administrators are full civil servants • private HEI’s banned • obligation of studies in the Greek language

27. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • Greece • 2007 • unrest due to suggested reforms to comply with Bologna • demonstrations in July 2006 • feeling that HE qualifications are not answering employment needs • Lisbon Convention on Recognition of Qualifications still not signed • working groups set up since 2005 for correspondence to Bologna • government commitment to set up a national QA agency (requiring modification to Constitution) • increase in private HEI’s offering foreign degrees

28. Quality Assurance and Accreditation Mechanisms in Europe • Conclusion • variety in approach to QA in higher education in Europe: • Sweden • broad range of participation in debate seeking consensus • UK • strong centralised approach to QA strongly linked to funding • Estonia • looking for best practices in QA from other countries • Greece • continued desire of particpants to maintain national independence through the status quo • suggesting: • difficulties (impossibility?) to establish one system by 2010