An update on the wonderful world of quality assurance! Fiona Crozier

Introduction Progress report on quality assurance from the European Commission The E4 Quality Assurance Forum: “Creativity and Diversity: challenges for QA beyond 2010,” Copenhagen, November 2009 Some thoughts and outcomes

Progress report on QA in HE from the European Commission Report goes to the Council of Europe and the European Parliament Need for recognition of qualifications outside the country that awards them Main responsibility for QA lies with HEIs but the role of agencies is to inform stakeholders about quality Strong growth in QA culture in HEIs and in agency awareness of principles governing QA…

…BUT… More effort will be needed before the EHEA has an easily readable and user- friendly QA system QA still has only a limited European dimension

What does the report propose? More quality “seals” (what is the benefit of these as opposed to work such as that which LANQUA is doing?) A feasibility study to develop “a multi-dimensional & customised approach to the global ranking of universities” Revisit the ESG to make QA more coherent with the development of the EHEA (e.g. compliance with the 3 cycles, in line with the mobility and employability action lines, require internal QA to address student services, encourage stronger European dimension, e.g., by encouraging agencies to carry out cross-border evaluation outside their national jurisdiction)

What has the report ignored? The framework for higher education qualifications in the EHEA Diploma supplements EUA’s work on quality culture/EQAF-E4 The impact of the ESG on both HEIs and agencies EUA’s report on joint masters programmes The OECD guidelines on cross-border education Tuning (funded by the EC) Project work such as TEEP/LANQUA (funded by the EC)

E4 European Quality Assurance Forum: Creativity & Diversity: challenges for QA beyond 2010 Title of conference throws into relief debates raised by the EC report LANQUA’s part in a workshop on reference points

Outcomes/thoughts Are “quality” and “quality assurance” interchangeable terms? (I don’t think so…) The agency view: that it is not the job of the agencies to create or stifle innovation and creativity, but to “check” quality The links between internal “quality”, the institutional quality policy/culture & external quality assurance requirements (LANQUA has the potential to impact on all three levels)