1. Models of Quality Assurance in Higher Education Across Europe
Anca Prisăcariu
University of Bucharest, Romania
Challenges in the European Area: Young Scientists’ 1st International Baku Forum, 20 – 25 May 2013

2. Challenges in the European Area: Young Scientists’ 1st International Baku Forum, 20 – 25 May 2013

3. Content
1. Biography
2. Short look into quality & quality assurance area
3. QA evolution in Bologna Process
4. Long story short – a history class
5. Approaches at different levels
System level – approach and focus
Agency level influencing institutional priorities
6. Conclusions
Challenges in the European Area: Young Scientists’ 1st International Baku Forum, 20 – 25 May 2013

4. Biography
Studies
ARACIS expert evaluator since 2009 (member of 6 expert panels for institutional quality assurance reviews)
Member of ARACIS Council 2010 – 2011
Academic Affairs Officer ANOSR 2010 – 2012
Member ESU QA Students Experts Pool present
Member of European Quality Assurance Register Committee
Expert evaluator in national registers QAA, FINHEEC, NVAO, AQA, KAA
Expert evaluator at european level (ENQA, EUA-IEP, ECA)
Certified as: internal evaluator, external evaluator, trainer for evaluators, evaluator for quality assurance national agencies
Member of EQAR working group for the revision of European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ESG)
Challenges in the European Area: Young Scientists’ 1st International Baku Forum, 20 – 25 May 2013

5. Short look into quality & quality assurance
Quality Assurance is the way in which an institution can guarantee with confidence and certainty, that the standards and quality of its educational provision are being maintained and improved. (including quality of access, progress and completion in higher education of all social categories)
Quality Enhancement is the process of positively changing activities in order to provide for continuous improvement in the quality of institutional provision.
Quality Culture can be seen as the ability of the institution, programme etc. to develop quality assurance implicitly in the day to day work of the institution.
Quality - ?
Henry Ford “Quality is what we do when no one is looking”
Challenges in the European Area: Young Scientists’ 1st International Baku Forum, 20 – 25 May 2013

6. QA evolution in Bologna Process I
Bologna (1999): “promotion of European co-operation in [QA] with a view to developing comparable criteria and methodologies” (Bologna, 1999)
Prague (2001): “quality assurance systems play in ensuring high quality standards and in facilitating the comparability of qualifications throughout Europe.” Rol important în garantarea calității programelor de studiu și în asigurarea comparabilităților în SEIS
Berlin (2003) development of “an agreed set of standards, procedures and guidelines on quality assurance” and exploring “ways of ensuring an adequate peer review system for quality assurance and/or accreditation agencies or bodies”.
Bergen (2005) ministers decided on establishing an European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR)
Challenges in the European Area: Young Scientists’ 1st International Baku Forum, 20 – 25 May 2013

7. QA evolution in Bologna Process II
London (2007): “The extent of student involvement at all levels has increased since 2005, although improvement is still necessary” and encouraging E4 to organize European Quality Assurance Forum as well as reporting on the progress of EQAR
Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve (2009): encouraging the enhancement of quality in teaching-learning process through ESG
Bucharest (2012) “Quality assurance is essential for building trust and to reinforce the attractiveness of the EHEA’s offerings, including in the provision of cross-border education. We commit to both maintaining the public responsibility for quality assurance and to actively involve a wide range of stakeholders in this development. (…) We will revise the ESG to improve their clarity, applicability and usefulness, including their scope. The revision will be based upon an initial proposal to be prepared by the E4 in cooperation with Education International, BUSINESSEUROPE and EQAR which will be submitted to the Bologna Follow-Up Group.”
Challenges in the European Area: Young Scientists’ 1st International Baku Forum, 20 – 25 May 2013

8. QA evolution in Bologna Process III
Challenges in the European Area: Young Scientists’ 1st International Baku Forum, 20 – 25 May 2013

9. Long story short – a history class I
Mid ‘90 : creation of the national quality assurance (exceptions: Denmark, France, The Netherlands and UK that already had this kind of structures), at least one per each country
Beginning of 2000: development of internal quality assurance processes at institutional level
Ministers in Berlin (2003) admit and underline the importance of quality assurance, add it as an action line of the Bologna Process and ask for “an agreed set of standards, procedures and guidelines on quality assurance” (ESG)
The ESG were drafted by the “E4” (ENQA, EUA, EURASHE, ESU) and adopted in 2005
After 2009: a metric focus on quality assurance and launching of multidimensional instruments regarding rankings
Challenges in the European Area: Young Scientists’ 1st International Baku Forum, 20 – 25 May 2013

10. Long story short – a history class II
2010 Map ESG project by E4
Starting 2007, London, ministers encourage for EQAR – registered agencies to be recognized all over EHEA and for HEIs to be free in choosing from any of these agencies
Bucharest Communique, 2012: “…we encourage quality assurance agencies to apply for registration (in EQAR). We will allow EQAR-registered agencies to perform their activities across the EHEA, while complying with national requirements. In particular, we will aim to recognize quality assurance decisions of EQAR-registered agencies on joint and double degree programmes”.
Revision of ESG is decided
At the moment, first processes organized by external agencies at programme and institutional level
Challenges in the European Area: Young Scientists’ 1st International Baku Forum, 20 – 25 May 2013

11. Approaches at different levels
System level – approach and focus
2. Agency level influencing institutional priorities
Challenges in the European Area: Young Scientists’ 1st International Baku Forum, 20 – 25 May 2013

12. Approaches at different levels
System level – approach and focus
Audit exclusively of the QA system – methods, procedures and processes
“Does the QA system produce useful information and does the HEI use it to improve its activities? Does the quality system cover the whole of HEI’s activities and all units?”
2. Review of the quality itself, against fixed external standards
No set of procedures will guarantee a good outcome, and is unlikely to achieve one if you don’t precisely define the outcomes you want and measure correctly what you are getting.
3. External evaluation looking exclusively at the achievement of the LO-ILO
You cannot meaningfully consider quality without considering outcomes, they key is finding the balance.
4. Evaluation against HEIs mission and objectives, NOT against external established criteria
Challenges in the European Area: Young Scientists’ 1st International Baku Forum, 20 – 25 May 2013

13. Approaches at different levels
Agency level influencing institutional priorities I
Romania
Low focus on internal QA system, rather on existence, not on functionality
Providing fixed standards to be fulfilled by HEIs: % of optional disciplines, number of students per seminar/course group, student/teacher ratio, square meters
Providing exact instructions on the internal qa system: structures, attributions, positions, roles
2. Finland
Steering by information, not control – assist, support, engage, producing qualitative information which HEIs can use in developing their operations
“Why do they take it so seriously?”, no formal consequences from a “not pass” decision
No appealing procedures
Challenges in the European Area: Young Scientists’ 1st International Baku Forum, 20 – 25 May 2013

14. Approaches at different levels
Agency level influencing institutional priorities II
3. Sweden
Attaining the learning outcomes based on individual project review
QA practices are in place “because we want to keep our institutions attractive and to fit the trend of the entire Europe”
QA evaluations do NOT look into students’ experience, social dimension, student centered learning – any of the day-to-day practices
4. UK
- Universities and other providers are responsible for quality assuring every aspect of the programmes they provide – including recruiting, preparing and setting out the expectations for external examiners.
- Total student experience - all aspects of the engagement of students with higher education
Challenges in the European Area: Young Scientists’ 1st International Baku Forum, 20 – 25 May 2013

15. Approaches at different levels
Agency level influencing institutional priorities III
5. Austria:
Challenges in the European Area: Young Scientists’ 1st International Baku Forum, 20 – 25 May 2013

16. Conclusions
There is no perfect system, each one of them fits national context and legislation and fits the trust that the system has between its stakeholders.
In the same way that Law does not deliver Justice, Quality Assurance doesn’t necessarily deliver Quality!
Quality still has to stay “at the heart of what we do”
Quality Allowance may be a better description, a system must allow quality to happen easier. We should agree that there will always be plenty of room for improvement.
Quality enhancement is about change - about making it, or doing it better, and making the best use of opportunities and resources. This may include doing new things, in new ways, and being prepared to stop doing things.
Challenges in the European Area: Young Scientists’ 1st International Baku Forum, 20 – 25 May 2013

17. Thank you! Anca Prisăcariu University of Bucharest, Romania