Internationalisation in Quality Assurance: Challenges and Priorities for the Future Dr. Padraig...

Internationalisation in Quality Assurance: Challenges and Priorities for the Future

Dr. Padraig Walsh

President, European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA)

Chief Executive, Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI)

Bologna Policy Forum, Yerevan, Armenia, 15 May 2015

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ENQA Mission

As the largest association of quality assurance agencies committed to agreed European standards, ENQA drives the development of quality assurance by:

• representing agencies internationally

• supporting them nationally

• providing them with comprehensive services and networking opportunities

• promoting the enhancement of quality

• promoting the development of a quality culture in higher education.

Bologna Policy Forum, Yerevan, 15 May 2015

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Background to ENQA

• 48 members from 25 (of 47) EHEA member countries

• all members of ENQA have undergone an external review against the European Standards and Guidelines (2005)


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ENQA – member agencies


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Background to ENQA - affiliates

• 45 affiliates from a further 16 EHEA member countries so ENQA is now representative of 41 of the 47 members of the EHEA

• Affiliates in the USA, South America, East Asia and the Middle East


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ENQA - affiliates


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ENQA Report to Ministerial ConferenceQA in the EHEA - Priorities for the future

• Internationalisation of Quality Assurance and the Revised ESG

• Benefits and Risks of Cross Border Quality Assurance Services

• Transparency and Availability of Quality Assurance Reports

• Independence of Quality Assurance Agencies


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Quality Assurance of Cross-border Higher Education - QACHE

• Erasmus Mundus funded project (2013-15) – ENQA as lead partner

• Looking at the different ways in which European QA agencies and higher education institutions address the accreditation and quality assurance of the programmes delivered outside of their home countries


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Quality Assurance of Cross-border Higher Education - QACHE

The partnership involves quality assurance agencies from:

• four significant European provider countries, the main provider country outside Europe (Australia) and the two main host regions of European cross-border education (Gulf and Asia-Pacific regions):

• Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), UK• High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (HCERES),

France• National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA), Spain• German Accreditation Council (GAC), Germany• Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), Australia• Arab Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ANQAHE)• Asia-Pacific Quality Network (APQN)


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4th ENQA Quality Procedures Project (QPP) 2014

• Fourth edition of the Survey “Quality Procedures in European Higher Education”, entitled: “Cooperation and competition in the provision of quality assurance services”

• The survey focussed on the issue of internationalisation of external quality assurance in higher education


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Findings indicate that most agencies agree that European-level collaboration in quality assurance is a much more relevant internationalisation tool than conducting quality assurance activities outside their country’s borders


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Findings indicate that –

• Despite the commitment of ministers in 2012 to grant agencies listed on the European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR) the freedom to perform their QA activities across the EHEA – very few agencies have done so on a regular basis

• While registration on EQAR remains a top priority for governments and QA agencies within Europe, performing cross-order QA activities is not


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Internationalisation of Quality Assurance

A complex phenomenon – should not be reduced to the import and export of QA services between countries in the EHEA

For QA agencies, internationalisation begins at home and may include:

• Use of international experts in national QA procedures• Use of international experts in governance bodies of national QA agencies• The application of international QA standards• Exchange of good practice• Networking and collaboration among QA agencies


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• The most powerful way to internationalise QA in the EHEA since 2005 has been the implementation of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG)

• With their revision completed between 2012 and 2015, the adoption of all national systems (particularly in countries which have not yet fully developed QA systems) to the revised ESG will be an important priority


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• Following the initial adoption of the ESG by the ministers in 2005, the majority of reviews of QA agencies between 2006 and 2011 were nationally organised, although ENQA was contracted to perform a small number of these reviews

• Since 2012, ENQA has been the main contractor of external reviews of European QA agencies, having co-ordinated and carried out almost all of the reviews used for determining both ENQA membership and EQAR listing

• In all cases, the evaluators come from countries outside the agency’s home country. This is, we believe, one of the most important contributions to the internationalisation of quality assurance and to its anchorage in the ESG.


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Cross-border Quality Assuranceof Higher Education

• While ‘internationalisation at home’ has clear positive consequences for the overall level of quality of the HE sector, the long-term impact of importing and exporting QA services across borders is not clear

• While competition among agencies for voluntary QA processes seems to be considered an added value by all parties involved, driving agencies to compete in compulsory QA processes could have serious pitfalls in the absence of a market regulator


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Quality Assurance of Higher Education

• The 2005 and 2015 versions of the ESG both recognise the diversity of higher education

• Even though all ENQA members operate according to the ESG, the services they provide can be substantially different in nature (audit, assessment, accreditation, etc.) and serve different objectives

• These often reflect specific national agendas and (frankly) the level of maturity of both the national higher education system and its quality assurance


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Diversity of ENQA members

ENQA members include:

• Monopoly national evaluation agencies• Pan-European evaluation agencies• Pan-European discipline-specific agencies• Monopoly national comprehensive accreditation agencies• Monopoly national discipline-specific agencies• Monopoly regional agencies (Spain)• National/international comprehensive agencies competing in a regulated

market (Germany)• National/international discipline-specific agencies competing in a regulated

market (Germany)


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Continental HE systems - comparisons

• United States– 50 states– State with highest GDP per capita = $60K– State with lowest GDP per capita = $29K– 6 Regional Accrediting agencies – no competition

• EHEA– 47 member countries– Country (of >1m) with highest GDP per capita = $80K– Country with lowest GDP per capita = $1.5K– EHEA includes11 countries with GDP per capita > $40K– and 8 with GDP per capita < $10K– 22 countries without an ENQA/EQAR recognised agency– European Register (EQAR) – some competition


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Cross-border Quality Assurance of Higher Education

• The application of a pure market logic – to permit HEIs to freely choose any QA operator – regardless of the specificities of the particular procedure – does not seem to be the most appropriate way to preserve standards

• Offering opportunities for HEIs to choose an agency that best fits their needs and interests is laudable, and the recognition of QA decisions by agencies operating inline with ESG is a necessary condition for mobility

• National governments must remain vigilant to the development of an unregulated cross-border quality assurance services market

• Guidelines of good practice for cross-border quality assurance activities should be developed and used by all agencies to ensure that the internationalisation of quality assurance will have the positive effects it is expected to have and to minimise the associated risks


Thank you

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