1. Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area – state of play
NCEQE Conference “New Approaches in Educational Quality Assessment”,
Tbilisi, April 13th, 2017
Dr Achim Hopbach
Managing Director, AQ Austria

2. Quality Assurance in the EHEA: Milestones
2003 (Berlin): HEI have the primary responsibility for quality and quality assurance; self commitment to set up national QA systems
2005 (Bergen): “Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area” (ESG)
2008: European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR)
Since 2009: QA part of the Bologna stock-taking
2015 (Yerewan): Revised ESG

3. Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance
The Basis:
Standards and Guidelines
for Quality Assurance
in the European Higher Education Area
(ESG)

4. ESG: Purposes
They set a common framework for quality assurance systems for learning and teaching at European, national and institutional level;
They enable the assurance and improvement of quality of higher education in the European higher education area;
They support mutual trust, thus facilitating recognition and mobility within and across national borders;
They provide information on quality assurance in the EHEA.

5. ESG: Scope
“The focus of the ESG is on quality assurance processes related to teaching and learning in higher education, including the learning environment and relevant links to research. The ESG apply to all higher education offered in the EHEA regardless of the mode of study or place of delivery. While some of the standards refer to programmes of study that lead to a formal qualification, the ESG are also applicable to higher education provision in its broadest sense and to transnational, cross-border provision.”
ESG address education, not management and not research. Both are taken into account not as such but as far as they are relevant for teaching and learning.
This is due to a great diversity in the 47 countries. In many QA in research is out of the remit of agencies and done in different ways by different actors. Diskussion in der BFUG über QS in der Forschung am Ende der Arbeiten
No specific parts for specific types of HEIs (Conservatoires, Engineering schools, Elite universities) or specific types of provision (Short courses, PhD programmes, cross-border provision, e-learning).
By and large diffrerent modes of provision need QA that applies the same principles (We couldn‘t find any contradictions, but different processes and/or criteria. The ESG only cover principles for processes or elements that are to be applied as fundamentals to all processes. The rest is diverse anyway.
Specific chapters would necessarily turn into prescriptive procedures if they wanted to add something to the existing.

6. ESG: Principles
The ESG are based on the following four principles for quality assurance in the EHEA:
Higher education institutions have primary responsibility for the quality of their provision and its assurance.
Quality assurance responds to the diversity of higher education systems, institutions, programmes and students.
Quality assurance supports the development of a quality culture.
Quality assurance takes into account the needs and expectations of students, all other stakeholders and society.
ESG address education, not management and not research. Both are taken into account not as such but as far as they are relevant for teaching and learning.
This is due to a great diversity in the 47 countries. In many QA in research is out of the remit of agencies and done in different ways by different actors. Diskussion in der BFUG über QS in der Forschung am Ende der Arbeiten
No specific parts for specific types of HEIs (Conservatoires, Engineering schools, Elite universities) or specific types of provision (Short courses, PhD programmes, cross-border provision, e-learning).
By and large diffrerent modes of provision need QA that applies the same principles (We couldn‘t find any contradictions, but different processes and/or criteria. The ESG only cover principles for processes or elements that are to be applied as fundamentals to all processes. The rest is diverse anyway.
Specific chapters would necessarily turn into prescriptive procedures if they wanted to add something to the existing.

7. ESG: Structure and Rationale
3 parts: Internal QA, external QA, QA of QA-Agencies
Internal QA as basis
External QA addresses the effectiveness of internal QA
QA-Agencies apply ESG part 2

8. Quality Assurance: State of play

9. Adaption of internal QA to ESG in various ways.
By and large national external quality assurance regimes and the agencies are in compliance with ESG.
The most common external quality assurance procedures are accreditation and evaluation of programmes, followed at a significant distance by evaluation and accreditation of institutions and by audits. (There might be a trend towards institutional approaches.)

10. Since ESG revision 2015 more emphasis on:
Closer link between internal QA and external QA
Student centred learning
Role of experts (students and international experts)
Publication of Reports

11. Variety and continuous change are key features of external QA in the EHEA
Most agencies apply more than one approach
Agencies frequently change their approach(es)
The emergence of a unified European quality assurance system is unlikely. National agendas matter!

12. Dr. Achim Hopbach