1. Vatican City, the 14th of November 2007 Quality Assurance in Higher Education Bologna process Bruno CURVALE Head of international affairs Agence dévaluation de la recherche et de lenseignement supérieur, France ENQA Vice President (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) Bologna expert (French national team) ESG and current QA trends The case of France

2. 2 Bruno Curvale, Vatican City, the 14th of November 2007 New laws for research and higher education A reorganisation of external QA The new agency AÉRES Some issues Outlines of the presentation The points that will be addressed … with a focus on QA issues

3. 3 Bruno Curvale, Vatican City, the 14th of November 2007 New laws for research and higher education Law (April 18 th, 2006) for the Research, legislative chapter of the Pact for the Research The transformation of steering mechanisms of national funded research Two agencies: The ANR (Agence nationale de la recherche), the AÉRES (Agence dévaluation de la recherche et de lenseignement supérieur) … Law (August 10th, 2007) Liberties and responsibilities of universities More power for the president, smaller board, more capacities for making management decisions … The necessary reorganisation of the maps of higher education and research More collaboration among HEIs, merging, amalgamation (PRES, fusion, …) The end of the organisation decided in the late sixties New balance between HEIs and national research bodies (CNRS, INSERM, INRA, …)

4. 4 Bruno Curvale, Vatican City, the 14th of November 2007 A reorganisation of external QA A new agency AÉRES for QA in HE and research (Agence dévaluation de la recherche et de lenseignement supérieur) Created by the law on research (May 2006) Organised by a decree (November 2006) Actual setting up: March 2007 Status: independent administrative authority Development of the missions of: CNE, CNER, MSTP New missions Approval of evaluation procedures of personnel Evaluation of all public research bodies (CNRS, INSERM, INRA, …)

5. 5 Bruno Curvale, Vatican City, the 14th of November 2007 The agency Organisation President, member of the Board he presides over Agency Board: 25 members 8 qualified personalities, 14 appointed members, 2 members of the Parliament. 3 sections: 3 Directors 1 General Secretary Three sections in charge of the evaluation: Section 1: Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Research Bodies - Also ratifies evaluation procedures for personnel Section 2: activity of Research Units Section 3: courses and degrees of HEIs

6. 6 Bruno Curvale, Vatican City, the 14th of November 2007 Some issues (among many) For the HE system The reorganisation of the map of HEIs and its consequences as regard: The definition of what a university is, the steering of research, … Who should sustain the Bologna Process as regard QA? The dual system, universities and grandes écoles, still exist For the agency The external evaluation of the agency The integration of various fields of evaluation The connection between the evaluation procedure and the contractual process The development of methods and criteria in compliance with the international standards

7. 7 Bruno Curvale, Vatican City, the 14th of November 2007 bruno.curvale@orange.fr http://www.enqa.net I thank you for your attention