WORKSHOP 6:
Quality Assurance after Bergen:
Implementing the European Standards
Contributions from Quality Assurance
Networks
Francisco Marcellán
Director ANECA
11 May 2006
INDEX
1. ENQA report on Standards and Guidelines
for Quality Assurance (SGQA) in the
European Higher Education Area (EHEA).
Basic principles, purposes, and aims
2. Possible
actions,
new
tasks,
perspectives for QA networks
and
ENQA REPORT ON SGQA
IN THE EHEA (BERGEN
MEETING, MAY 2005)
 THERE WILL BE EUROPEAN STANDARDS
FOR INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL QUALITY
ASSURANCE
The consistency of QA accross the EHEA will be
improved by the use of agreed Standards and
Guidelines
ENQA REPORT ON SGQA
IN THE EHEA (BERGEN
MEETING, MAY 2005)
 THERE WILL BE EUROPEAN STANDARDS
FOR EXTERNAL QUALITY ASSURANCE
(QAA)
The consistency of QAA will be based on its own
work submitted to a cyclical review within five years.
A European register of QAA will be produce.
Independence, official status, mission statement,
resources, and accountability procedures are the
key words
BASIC PRINCIPLES
1.- FOR THE SOCIETY
 Providers of Higher Education have primary
responsibility for the quality of their provision and its
assurance.
 The interests of society in the quality and standards
of the need to be safeguarded.
 The quality of academic programmes need to be
developed and improved for students and other
beneficiaries of Higher Education across the EHEA.
BASIC PRINCIPLES
2.- FOR THE INSTITUTIONS
• Processes should be developed so that HEI can
demonstrate their accountability.
• Institutions should be able to demonstrate their
quality at home and internationally.
• The encouragement of a culture of quality both
internal and external.
PURPOSES OF
STANDARDS AND
GUIDELINES
• To improve the education available to students in
HEI in the EHEA.
• To assist HEI in managing and enhancing their
quality and to help the reinforcement of their
institutional autonomy.
PURPOSES OF
STANDARDS AND
GUIDELINES
• To form a background for quality assurance
agencies in their work.
• To make external Quality Assurance more
transparent and simpler to be understood by the
people involved.
AIMS
• To encourage the development of HEI which
foster vibrant intellectual and education
achievement.
• To provide a source of assistance and guidance
to HEI and other relevant agencies in developing
their own culture of QA.
AIMS
• To inform and raise the expectations of HEI,
students, teachers, employers, and other
stakeholders about the processes and
outcomes of HE.
• To contribute to build a common frame of
reference for the provision of HE and the
assurance of quality within the EHEA.
ACTIONS
1. QA Networks
Real practicalities in in the joint interest areas
leading to mutual recognition of QA decisions.
- Is the subsidiarity principle a barrier?
- What does mutual recognition mean?
- How the HEI, governments, and agencies are
involved?
- The mutual understanding inside the QA networks as
a key idea in order to the implementation of standards
and guidelines.
ACTIONS
2. European Register of QAA
•
The framework of QAA in Europe: Public, private, and
thematic agencies already operating or planning to
operate in Europe.
•
The identification of professional and credible QAA in
order to apply for the recognition of non-national
degrees.
•
The informative value for achieving transparency and
comparability of external quality assurance of HEI.
ACTIONS
3. The central role of HEI
Following the Bergen Communiqué, HEI´s staff
and students constitute the basic partners in the
Bologna Process. Their role in its implementation
becomes more important now that legislative
reforms are needed.
ACTIONS
4. Recognition of degrees and study
periods
- The degree system and the elaboration of
national framewoks for qualifications compatible
with the overarching framework for qualifications
in the EHEA by 2010.
ACTIONS
- The complementarity between such a overarching
framework and the proposed broader framework for
qualifications for life-long-learning encompassing
general education as well as vocational education
and training.
- Current difficulties in the recognition of foreing
qualifications as well as joint degrees.
ACTIONS
5. Mobility
The efforts to lift obstacles to mobility by
facilitating the delivery of transit visas and work
permits, and by encouraging participation in
mobility programmes have been successful?
ACTIONS
6. Attractiveness of the EHEA and
cooperation between countries
- The role of academic values prevails in the
international academic cooperation.
- The extension of good practices in the EHEA to other
regions.
• Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European
Higher Education Area
European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA)
www.enqa.net
• The European Higher Education Area - Achieving the Goals
Communiqué of the Conference of European Ministers Responsible for
Higher Education, Bergen, 19-20 May 2005
www.bologna-bergen2005.no/
• Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council on
Further European Cooperation in Quality Assurance in Higher
Education (PE-CONS 3666/1/05)
European Union
http://register.consilium.eu.int/
• Agencia Española de Evaluación de la Calidad y Acreditación
www.aneca.es
THANK YOU
FOR YOUR ATTENTION