Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Report on progress in quality assurance in higher education

Author (Corporate)
Series Title
Series Details (2014) 29 final (28.01.14)
Publication Date 28/01/2014
Content Type ,

European higher education faces significant challenges. The European Commission, in a series of recent strategy papers, has highlighted these challenges – greatly expanding the student population, raising quality and aligning teaching and learning more closely to wider societal and labour market needs; adapting to globalisation and the huge growth in higher education students and institutions across the world, challenging Europe's position as a world leader in education; and improving and widening the delivery of higher education by harnessing new technologies such as MOOCs and virtual or blended learning.

The PIAAC survey of adult skills has pointed to differences in the levels of graduates' skills across countries. In the face of these challenges, it is vital to maintain and enhance the quality of higher education, developing modernised higher education institutions (HEIs) that equip people with high level skills and drive economic and social development, helping to achieve the Europe 2020 goals of better jobs and stronger growth.

HEIs have the ultimate responsibility for the quality of their offering (setting, monitoring and renewing their quality goals through 'internal' quality assurance). They are supported by external agencies (QAA) which assess quality standards, evaluating institutions, accrediting programmes or benchmarking performance against other HEIs ('external' quality assurance). But public authorities have a duty to ensure that the quality of individual institutions, and of their higher education system as a whole, are fit for purpose. A framework of national and European tools and cooperation enhances trust across systems. Quality assurance mechanisms are therefore essential to help institutions and policy makers to make a success of their reforms.

The present report follows the first published in 2009, responding to the invitation from the European Parliament and Council in 2006 to report on progress in quality assurance. Building on the findings of the 2009 report - which identified the need to make QA more efficient and transparent for users; to link it overtly to wider higher education priorities; and to develop cross-border cooperation to improve quality – and drawing on a wide range of sources, it highlights the potential for quality assurance to play a more active role in supporting reform at system and institutional levels and proposes EU actions to support institutions and Member States.

Source Link Link to Main Source http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2014:029:FIN
Related Links
EUR-Lex: COM(2014)29: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:029:FIN

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