Search

This article, using the example of Ukraine, aims to explore the time allocation of academics at university in a semi-peripheral state sustaining means–ends decoupling. Data emanate from the responses of 205 academics in business studies. The analysis uses degrees (qualifications) and gender as main categorizations. Findings indicate that means–ends decoupling at the state and university levels hinders academics from allocating their time to activities prescribed by the research university model, specifically, research and service.

Among pioneering European countries who started to establish a formal higher education quality assurance system in the 1980s, the Netherlands adopted one based on peer review and quality enhancement, which was replaced in 2003 by an accountability-oriented accreditation system under the substantial influence of the Bologna Process. Recently, the emphasis is being put on institutional audit to restore a culture of quality within higher education institutions. This article addresses the question of what the higher education worldwide can learn from the evolution of Dutch quality assurance policy concerning control, the balance between accountability and quality improvement and trust. Finally, recent adaptations to the current, third, round of accreditation are also addressed in this context.

In the absence of any national quality performance monitoring system (until 2006) 8 of 21 Greek public universities voluntarily participated in the European University Association Institutional Evaluation Programme (EUA-IEP). Empirical data were collected through documents (eight evaluators’ reports). This article uses qualitative content analysis to understand the relationships between neo-institutional pressures (coercive, normative and mimetic) and university characteristics that influenced the choice for the EUA-IEP. Normative and mimetic pressures were detected through these reports. Coercive pressure did not play a role in the decision to invite the EUA-IEP. Different types of universities engaged in the EUA-IEP but not monothematic and ‘Athenian’ universities.

This paper looks at the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) as an important part of the international trade law system and explores if and how it affects the steering capacity of a nation state regarding higher education. It offers a new conceptual framework to look on the impact of GATS on higher education within its increasingly complex environment by distinguishing between the 'static' dimension (GATS' rules and disciplines) and the 'dynamic' dimension (stakeholders' standpoints, views and actions). Furthermore, by comparing two case studies conducted in the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, it connects the theoretical framework on GATS and the steering capacity of a nation state with specific national conditions and complements case studies that have been so far carried out in other countries. We concluded that neither through the static dimension nor through the dynamic, was the steering capacity in the two cases affected directly: nation states remain the prime actors regarding higher education. Nevertheless, exercising their power over higher education has become more complex and nation states must take more consequences of their internal policy choices into account, which may be difficult to predict.

The link between internationalisation and quality assurance used to be missing. In this paper, we wish to show why and how this link is being established in recent years by looking at developments that suggest convergence between the two. We emphasise the implications of wider international developments on Europe as a whole. Implications of the Bologna Declaration for quality assurance are elaborated. Finally, we mention a number of unresolved issues that require further research.

Transparency in higher education is one of the aims of the Bologna Declaration (1999). In a number of countries in Europe, this led to processes to change quality assurance into accreditation, which supposedly results in more transparency. Are there lessons to be learnt from experiences in Central and Eastern Europe regarding accreditation since 1990? I maintain that the character of those 'first generation' accreditation systems is more exclusively academic and drives towards uniformity more than the multifaceted systems needed for Bologna's 'second generation' requirements. A 'multiple accreditation system' would answer these requirements better. Some principles of a multiple accreditation system are presented, together with consequences for external evaluation criteria and procedures. Two nascent accreditation system designs in Western European countries (Germany and the Netherlands) are then compared with the demands set by the Bologna Declaration and with the design principles of a multiple accredita...

As higher education begins to operate increasingly in a European framework, consequences for the assurance of quality in higher education are bound to become evident. A pilot study to develop a methodology for the comparison of quality across different higher education systems is described. The project involved comparison of ten study programmes in economics in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. A design derived from general considerations about the concept of quality and about the nature of higher education and different systems incorporated two stages. First was the collection of information and the processing of this information into manageable data sets; second was the assessment of the information by way of peer review. The proceedings and principal findings of both stages followed the overview of the project design. The article concludes by highlighting some implications of this pilot project for the future of quality assurance in higher education on a European scale.