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An Entrepreneurial Approach to Quality Assurance
to Higher Education in Europe
Mihai Korka
At the beginning of a new millennium, society is confronted with the
challenges of a few deliberately-induced processes such as globalization
and digitalization. Both processes reflect, in their particular way, the
increase in productivity, easy access to resources, wider knowledge and
the democratic development of humankind.
In essence, globalization aims at ironing out differences inherited from
the past and mapping out a common future at world-wide scale. The future
of mankind cannot be conceived outside the desire to build bridges between
the local needs and the global demands of the global village, as
McLuhan put it.
A discussion on globalization involves primarily the interdependence
between the economic, technological and ecological fields, as well as
the harmonization of instruments assisting the development of international
relations worldwide. Globalization does not necessarily mean standardization
or uniformity. On the contrary, as a result of combining local and global
factors, what looks like a potential advantage in one part (country, region,
subcontinent) of the world may look like a potential disadvantage in another
part. This diversity of local contexts generates the world's material
and spiritual wealth and creates opportunities and motivation for international
exchanges.
In the process of promoting globalization, education is looked upon as
both one of its factors/instruments and one of its effects (subject to
substantial changes as a result of globalization). At the same time the
world is clearly dominated by ICT (information and communication technology),
and the improvement of human capital and resources through continuous
quality education is becoming a key factor in promoting lasting progress.
Translating, conveying and using knowledge ensure the increase in productivity
and the social progress. At the same time it facilitates a quality personal
and professional life capable of contributing to the community development
and enhancing social cohesion.
Through their vocation and functions, educational systems and universities
in particular are the most qualified to contribute to the development
of the new learning and knowledge based society, different from the industrial
and postindustrial societies. However, the ability of exploiting the positive
effects of globalization and digitalization is not evenly distributed
on a global scale. Fierce competition among the present players on a more
and more liberalized market is beneficial to the player equipped with
better technologies and more dynamic and flexible management; on the other
side, the weaker player, with older technologies and a more rigid attitude
towards the clients' ever-changing demands gets easily pushed out of the
market. This explains the violent reaction of many communities against
the consequences of globalization.
Competition is present not only among strong and weak operators, but also
among those with equivalent potential. Under these circumstances, quality
becomes the main factor of competitiveness, the primary tool of persuading
the client to make a decision in favour of one offer at the expense of
another.
In the struggle for a privileged position in a world increasingly open
to globalization, strategic alliances among competitors and establishing
power centres are the safest methods to fight off other competitors. In
Europe, the creation of such a power centre has experienced significant
progress over the last years. The engine of this process is the European
Union. Its objectives include:
- the continuous consolidation of internal structures
- the creation of a unique European space through an open, consistent
policy promoted both inside the EU and in its relationship with countries
of the European Association of Free Exchange and the Central-European
Zone for Free Exchange, with the Baltic states as well as the other
candidate countries.
The purpose of this process is to strengthen Europe's position in the
global competition. A clear advantage is the fact that Europe is a collection
of diverse entities capable of exploiting this advantage when competing
with the rest of the world. Moreover, the Single European Zone means a
lot more than economic mechanisms and the single currency, the Euro. The
European states have become aware that the main asset of the region is
its human capital. This is why in view of the new economy dominating the
world - the economy of learning and knowledge, education and professional
training are becoming political priorities for all states in the region.
In addition to that, the summit of the European Council held in Barcelona
in March 2002 decided that by 2010 educational and professional training
systems in Europe should become "a qualitative point of reference"
for the entire world.
Universities play a particular role in accomplishing this goal. They
will continue to have a major influence in shaping the European dimension
of the contemporary society as a result of their specific formative, innovative,
cultural, political functions as well as those referring to professional
mobility.
The idea of creating a European Area of Higher Education took shape in
1999, when twenty-nine European ministers of Education (among whom the
Romanian Minister of Education) signed the Bologna Declaration.
The Declaration represents the commitment of every signatory country to
carry out measures of restructuring the higher education system in view
of ensuring consistency at European level. The deadline for creating the
European Area of Higher Education is the year 2010.
An open European space for higher education would bring along a variety
of competitive advantages provided there is respect for the diversity
of higher education systems in all European states. The creation of this
space involves continuous efforts to eliminate obstacles and develop an
educational network meant to stimulate trans-European mobility and strong
co-operation among the universities interested.
For this reason, the Bologna Declaration provides a set of specific
objectives, the implementation of which represents a turning point in
the future development of the European higher education:
- Structuring higher education in all European countries in two main
phases, following the pattern undergraduate studies - postgraduate studies,
while at the same time observing the particular nature of each field
of study in all European countries.
- Setting up a clear system of certification of higher education studies
in all participant countries, so that academic documents should be easy
to understand and compare at European level.
- Designing of a system of transferable academic credits to be used
by each university, in line with ECTS - the European Credit Transfer
System.
- Assuring a European dimension of quality in higher education in each
country signatory of the Declaration.
- Eliminating the obstacles which still persist in what concerns the
mobility of the students, teachers and researchers between European
universities.
Academic communities in the European countries had various reactions
to the Bologna Declaration; however, they had to admit that through
its content, the Declaration is not meant to be a reform imposed on the
European states and does not reflect any tendency for standardization
at continental level, but rather, it is an invitation to European universities
to identify and promote common European values on a global market
for higher education. An alternative to the competition from universities
outside Europe (the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, etc.) as well as from
transnational tertiary education can be provided by working out competitive
and attractive academic solutions supported by the creation of the European
Area of Higher Education. The premises for the competitiveness of the
European offer consist in the diversity and flexibility of the educational
programmes and the trans-European mobility. Behind these premises lies
a common factor - the quality of the European higher education,
and there is a distinctive need for a clear, transparent mechanism of
quality assurance. The summit of the European higher education institutions
in Salamanca, in March 2001, emphasized the need for quality assurance
in each university and the necessity to develop mutual trust between
European universities as regards internal quality assurance. Equally important
is the need for developing formative programmes leading to qualifications
acknowledged on the European labour market.
Many European traditional higher education institutions pride themselves
on offering high-quality programmes and quality is guaranteed by input
factors (teaching staff, financial resources, equipment) and by reliable
marking criteria traditionaly used by teachers in examining the students.
The conservative spirit of these academic communities often rejects the
very idea of evaluating the quality of their formative programmes. Other
higher education institutions carefully supervise the quality of the output
in order to assess the quality of the educational programmes on offer.
Among the criteria used are the quick rhythm in which graduates manage
to find employment and the stability of their employment in their first
job.
So far, only a small number of universities have understood that in such
a dynamic society as ours, an educational institution has to be run like
a business operating in a market strongly affected by competition. Consistent
identification of the qualification needs on the labour market and good
knowledge of the expectations of the different stakeholders supporting
the universities (employers in the public and private sectors as well
as students and their families) facilitate the design of an appropriate
and diversified educational offer.
The carrying out of these educational programmes is based on the institutional
strategic plan (in which input factors are mobilized and exploited),
and their competitiveness originates in the quality culture developed
by each university. Every member of staff needs to be certain that individual
performance is important to the quality of the final product; every member
of staff has to benefit from the moral and material motivation when performing
to the highest level in his/her position. To put it differently, the management
system of a university, just like that of a company, is focused on quality
and the involvement of all the members of the academic community with
a view to ensuring long-term success through customer satisfaction; benefits
are thus obtained both for the university and for society in general (text
adopted by SR ISO 8402).
Consequently, total quality management in a university involves
carefully considering each component of the activity in an academic community
(besides initial education and training). Assuring the graduates' quality
performance is only possible if modern and flexible educational programmes
are backed by
- sustained research and development activities,
- a stable relationship of the university with the future employers
of graduates,
- systematic contacts with institutional partners and competitors inside
the country and abroad,
- efficient academic, financial and logistic management, etc.
Every task performed by the university needs to be replicated by internal,
transparent mechanisms of self-evaluation concerning the quality
of the respective activity. The self-evaluation process involves not only
the teaching staff but also the students, researchers, administrative
staff, employers and graduates in the first 3-5 years after graduation.
Clear, quantifiable outcomes of the internal process of self-evaluation
of each type of activity carried out in every department of the university
can contribute to external quality accreditation by national authorities
or by European institutions.
External quality accreditation has two clear aims:
- it facilitates the guidance of local and foreign future beneficiaries
on the higher education market which is characterized by an increasingly
varied educational offer
- it enhances mutual trust among universities involved in trans-European
mobility.
It is easy to notice that this entrepreneurial approach to quality in
higher education relies heavily on the pragmatic character of the activities
carried out by universities, the rational allocation of human, financial
and material resources and their effective use. Quality assurance does
not only satisfy the university clients, but makes possible the integration
of the university in its wider environment, as well as its participation
in international academic networks, with priorities in the pan-European
networks.
Bibliography
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*** Outline of a Proposal for a Project on the Quality Assurance Aspects
of New Forms of Higher Education. ENQA workshop on Quality Assurance
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