1. UNESCO-CEPES 10 September 2002 Kauko Hämäläinen, Kirsi Mustonen and Karl Holm Standards, Criteria and Indicators in Programme Accreditation and Evaluation in Western Europe. This is a working paper written for the UNESCO-CEPES project "Strategic indicators for higher education in the twenty-first century". 1. The purpose of the paper UNESCO-CEPES has launched a project on Indicators for Institutional and Programme Accreditation in Higher/Tertiary Education, which is a part of the Project on Strategic Indicators. UNESCO-CEPES has initiated a Working Group that is expected e.g. to provide a survey of the existing sets of standards and indicators used in the process of institutional and programme accreditation. The principal consideration of the project has been an undertaking of a thorough analysis of currently used statistical indicators to be followed by a formulation of modifications of indicators, or even new indicators which should lead to improvement of quantitative assessment of higher education at both system and institutional levels. According to the project outline, the obtained information on indicators will be used to assess the state of a higher education system on a specific issue. This report is based on documents describing the standards, criteria and indicators used in programme accreditation, evaluation and quality assurance in different Western European countries. Different kinds of material and arrangements are analysed: reports by national authorities of accreditation and quality assurance as well as reports by professional associations, associations of institutions and private organisations. This project concentrates on currently used standards, criteria and indicators. At this stage both statistical and qualitative material have been collected. The possible changes in the construction of existing indicators from input indicators to output indicators are also analysed. In the following some central concepts are defined. First of all it is good to have a clear understanding, what the concept "accreditation" means and why it is implemented in many European countries. It is also interesting to analyse the concepts like standards and criteria, because the use of these words seems to be quite confusing. Then some kind of framework for evaluations and accreditation is described. At the end of the article there are some comments, analysis and recommendations about the current situation.

2. OBJECTIVES REGIONAL NATIONAL INTERNATIONAL INTERNAL QUALITY ASSURANCE RESOURCES PROGRAMME RESULTS FRAMEWORK OF PROGRAMME ACCREDITATION AND QUALITY ASSURANCE IN WESTERN EUROPE FINHEEC: K.Hämäläinen, K.Holm, K.Mustonen - STAFF - STUDENTS - MANAGEMENT - FACILITIES - FINANCING - CONTENT OF CURRICULUM - CURRICULUM DESIGN - TEACHING AND LEARNING - CONNECTIONS TO RESEARCH - GUIDANCE AND COUNCELLING - PRACTICAL TRAINING - CONNECTIONS TO WORKING LIFE - INTERNATIONALISATION - EXAMS AND FINAL THESIS - ACHIEVED OBJECTIVES - STUDENT FLOWS - LENGTH OF STUDY - GRADUATE PLACEMENT - REGIONAL IMPACT - FEEDBACK / STUDENTS, STAFF, ALUMNI, EMPLOYMENT MARKET, SOCIETY - QUALITY MANAGEMENT / QUALITY ASSURANCE MECHANISM