Quality Assurance in postgraduate education – a student perspective

Ligia DecaChairpersonEuropean Students’ Union (ESU)

ENQA WS – Quality Assurance in postgraduate education – 12th of March 2009, Brasov

ESU and QA•Actively involved in the design and

promotion of the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG)

•One of the founders of the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR)

•First QA agency audit (ARACIS) performed by a student review panel

•Involved in: QA Forum, EUA’s IEP, ENQA evaluations and QAHECA

Context•A growing number of Bologna states implementing

the three cycle structure

•QA exercises had to cover postgraduate

programmes in a comprehensive manner

•Same basic principles, stated in the ESG:

stakeholder involvement, fitness for purpose,

public availability and accessibility of the quality

assurance results and generating trust

What kind of QA do we need?

•External and internal reviews should be seen as complementary

•Institutional level QA and programme level QA should not be separated or exclude each other

•For the protection and guidance of students, quality assurance at the programme level is a possible solution

Specific elements for QA in postgraduate studies•The quality of supervision/ tutoring/

assesment•Living, studying and working conditions•Accessibility of Ma&PhD prgrammes

(relating to gender, minorities, various socio-economic backgrounds etc.)

•Workload and learning & research outcomesOther success elements: full involvement of

students as equal partners and structured approaches.

Links with other policy areas or BP tools

•Recognition:▫ECTS▫Diploma supplement -> Employability▫RPL

•Mobility

Conclusions•Merging education and research requires

the redefinition of QA exercises•The journey has just begun…

• Thank you!European Students’ Unions

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Web: www.esu-online.org Phone: +32 2 502 23 62E-mail: Secretariat@esu-online.org