ISSN 1753-9439 Paper 12 Vol 1 No 1 Pages 303 – 329
Institutionalising Quality in Higher Education in Europe
Following the last century's development in international trade and the corresponding needs for employment, we are currently looking at the globalisation of education. This paper discusses the issue of quality assurance in higher education at a time of the building of a European Higher Education Area to encourage the mobility and the employability of Europe's citizens and to make its higher education more competitive. It considers the role and objectives of European institutions in the process and discusses the potential for success by studying four different approaches to quality in higher education through the efforts of Sweden, the United Kingdom, Estonia and Greece. It questions the chances for success in establishing a common system for measuring the quality of higher education across Europe before the 2010 deadline set by the Lisbon Convention.
Keywords: quality assurance, higher education, quality accreditation, Bologna Declaration