CELEX: 51997PC0159
Language: en
Date: 1997-05-02
Title: Proposal for a Council recommendation on European cooperation in quality assurance in higher education

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
* •it
                                     Brussels, 02.05.1997
                                     COM(97) 159 final
                                     97/0121 (SYN)
                      Proposal for a
          COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION
                           ON
            EUROPEAN COOPERATION
                           IN
               QUALITY ASSURANCE
              IN HIGHER EDUCATION
             (presented by the Commission)
 ---pagebreak---  ---pagebreak---                                  EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
I. INTRODUCTION
 1. Quality in higher education is a priority for the Member States and for the higher education
    institutions themselves. European Community encouragement, support and supplementing of
    national measures can provide a substantial boost to the improvement of this quality.
2. The Commission Memorandum on higher education1 and the responses of the Member States
    following an extensive debate on this subject2 stressed that quality in an increasingly diversified
    higher education was an issue of paramount importance. It was also recognised that merely
    evaluating the scientific quality of research and the quality of staff is no longer a guarantee as to
    the quality of teaching and that the assessment of the quality of programme organisation,
    teaching methods, management methods, structures and communications are equally
    important. The role of quality assurance for strategic management and the cultural dimension
    of evaluation were also highlighted. There was a first support for the introduction of efficient
    and acceptable methods which are based on European co-operation and transnational exchange
    of experience and to networking of evaluation experts.
3. Based on this response to the Memorandum, and after several years of close co-operation
     under the ERASMUS programme, the Council3 and the Ministers of Education in November
      1991 urged Community action in the area of quality evaluation in higher education. The
     ministers felt that European quality assessment experiments could enrich the multiplicity of
     national quality assurance methods without impinging on the competence and responsibilities
     of the Member States or the autonomy of higher education institutions. A Commission study4
     on the methods of quality assessment used in the Member States at the time provided an
     overview of the "traditional methods" and the "new methods" of quality assessment in the
     Member States. As this study also showed a growing interest in quality in higher education as
     weil as common elements in the "new methods" already in use, the Commission launched In
     co-operation with the competent authorities of the Member States two European pilot
     projects - one in engineering and the other in communication/information or art/design - in
     which 42 Member State institutions (plus four institutions from Iceland and Norway)
     participated.
4    In the first half of the 1990s, when the Commission launched the projects, only a few
     European countries had developed systematic quality assurance of their higher education
     systems. The aim of the projects was therefore to further raise awareness about the need to
     assess higher education in Europe, to enhance existing national procedures, to give a European
     dimension to quality assessment, to support the transfer of experience, and to contribute to
     the improvement of the mutual recognition of diplomas and study periods by promoting co-
     operation between Institutions and by reinforcing mutual confidence through understanding
     programmes taught in different cultural contexts.
1
       COM(91) 349 final
2
         The outlook for Higher Education In the European Community; Responses to the Memorandum, Studies of
       the Task Force Human Resources, Education Training and Youth M° 2, Luxembourg 1993
3
       OJNoC321, 12.12.1991, p.2
4
         Quality management and quality assurance in European higher education. Methods and mechanisms, Study
       N° 1 of the Task Force Human Resources, Education, Training and Youth, Luxembourg 1993
 ---pagebreak--- 5    The pilot projects for the assessment of quality in higher education were conducted in 1994
     and 1995, in conjunction with the competent authorities in the Member States, and focused
     on the assessment of the quality of teaching in a specific subject area In a selected institution,
     but did not exclude possible interactions with research activities and the management of
     higher education institutions. The method was based on the four principles common to those
     quality assurance systems in Europe using quality assessment at the time the project was
     designed (Denmark, France, the Netherlands and tiie United Kingdom). The objectives,
     methods and organisation of the projects were described In the "Guidelines for Participating
     Institutions", translated into all Community languages and distributed to all pilot project
     participants.
6    The outcome of the Europe-wide dialogue which took place during the pilot projects between
     HE institutions, experts, state authorities and NGOs were included in the information note5
     presented by Mrs. Cresson to the Community institutions along with a report prepared by the
     management group which assisted the Commission In tiie Implementation of the pilot
     projects. There was broad satisfaction with the launch and Implementation of the European
     pilot projects and a growing realisation of the need to guarantee die quality of higher
     education. Participants resolved both to continue die co-operation and exchange of
     experience and to use the structures set up by all countries for organising the pilot projects,
      irrespective of whether or not they had already a quality assurance policy.
 7    At its meeting on 6 May 1996, at which the Information note was presented, the Education
      Council appreciated the co-operation in this important area and took note of the
      Commission's intention to propose a Council Recommendation with tiie orientation described
      in the note*.
 If. THE CONTEXT
 8     The new Chapter 3 in Title VIII of the Treaty circumscribes tiie Community's Important role
       In the development of quality education without harmonisation of Segal and statutory
       provisions in the Member States and confirms the latter's responsibility for the content of
       teaching and the organisation of their own education and training systems. Freedom of
       movement in a single market requires an open education area with mutual recognition of
       qualifications, while quality education capable of providing everyone with the wherewithal to
       meet European and world-wide standards and to make use of free movement within the
       Community needs transnational mobility and transnational co-operation. The education and
       training mobility programmes the Community has implemented since 1986 have increasingly
       shown that mobility and co-operation at the European level improve knowledge and
       understanding of the different national education systems, create greater transparency and
       mutual trust and so help to remove the barriers to the recognition of qualifications and skills.
       However, the recent Green Paper7 of the Commission on Education, Training and Research
       ''Obstacles to Transnational Mobility" acknowledges that there are still many obstacles to
       mobility.
 9     Quality assessment and quality assurance in higher education and transnational co-operation in
       quality issues stand in this tradition and continue to improve interaction between freedom of
       movement, quality education and greater transparency and understanding.
        SEQ96) 800
       Minutes of the 1920th meeting of the Education Council (SI(96)428)
        COM(96) 462 final
 ---pagebreak---    The establishment of permanent quality assessment and quality assurance mechanisms in the
   Member States and the institutionalisation of European co-operation will bring added value for
   the quality. On the one hand, higher education institutions in the Member States can, with
   the heip of NGOs or other groups or agencies, monitor their strengths and weaknesses against
   the aims of their disciplines, their institutional profiles and in relation to European and
   worldwide qualification requirements, and thus safeguard the quality of the output of their
   higher education systems. The resulting flexibility and improvement of qualifications would
   improve freedom of movement. On the other hand, institutionalised exchange of experiences
   and European co-operation in quality assessment and quality assurance will broaden
   knowledge of the situation in the different subject areas, understanding of the programmes
   taught across Europe, and enhance quality assurance mechanisms in higher education
   establishments.
   Institutionalised co-operation in quality evaluation and quality assurance could eventually
   achieve a judicious blend of different cultural approaches and common methodological
   elements developed on a voluntary basis, founded on mutual trust and knowledge. This would
   be a big step towards overcoming obstacles to mobility.
10 What is more, using common methodological elements does not imply a 'ranking' or a
   common European standard. Quality evaluation methods are procedural rules and not
   content rules. That means they define the quality assessment or quality assurance procedure
   (whom to involve, what to look at, etc.) but do not establish quality criteria. These methods
   help the players concerned to determine their own strengths and weaknesses by examining the
   performance in their subject areas or their higher education establishments and asking whether
   this performance represents an adequate response to the concrete problems in the economic,
   social and cultural context peculiar to their HE establishments. The judgements on the quality
   of the institutional response are made by the players themselves and those whom they called
   in for their assistance.
11 The globalisation of economies, which involves the intensification of international competition
   through the emergence of an increasingly integrated worldwide market, has added a new
   dimension to the economic, social and cultural aims which are embodied in the European
   Community's developmental task: This can be achieved only if a whole range of structural
   changes is implemented to enable the Community to strengthen its competitiveness. One of
   the overarching objectives for corporate strategies and public policies in this context is to
   exploit the competitive edge associated with the gradual shift to a knowledge-based economy.
   The quality of education and training thus takes on a new, crucial importance for the
    development of the Community aims. The White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and
    Employment8 invites each Member State to take from the document the elements it regards
    as making a positive contribution to its own action and proposes Community action to give
    fresh impetus to Europe's competitiveness.
12 The recent White Paper on Teaching and Learning9 likewise stresses that the changes currently
    in progress have indeed improved everyone's access to information and knowledge, but have
    at the same time changed working systems and the qualifications required so that in-depth re-
    organisation of educational resources is necessary to avoid insecurity and social exclusion in a
    knowledge-based society in which everyone's position will increasingly be determined by the
     knowledge he or she has built up.
8
      Growth, competitiveness and employment. The challenges and ways forward into the 21st century, White Paper,
      Brussels, Luxembourg 1994
9
      Teaching and learning - Towards the learning society, White Paper, Brussels, Luxembourg 1995
 ---pagebreak--- 13 In this context, the old steering mechanisms used by public authorities h3ve to be streamlined
    to provide the adaptability required. A new interpretation of the autonomy of higher
    education institutions is emerging which tends to give them more leeway in the definition of
    their tasks and the means of performing them, including allocation of financial resources, but
    also gives them greater responsibility for the quality of the teaching they deliver.
14 Experience in the Member States and during the European pilot projects have shown that
     besides giving higher education institutions evidence of their own performance, quality
     evaluation and quality assurance procedures can promote the self-critical capacities of these
     institutions and their ability to reorganise their output so that it better meets the needs of their
     economic, social and cultural environment. This can be considered as a first step to the
     development of coherent strategies of quality assessment and quality assurance In higher
     education establishments as a part of a more wide-ranging development of their ongoing
     capacity for innovation in the sense of "learning organisations".
     Some Member States and/or higher education institutions search systematically for methods
     to promote this development as part of an overall strategy for redefining the relationship
      between HE institutions, state and society. The capability of these institutions to respond
      appropriately and quickly to the complex changes taking place in their environment can be
      improved by helping them to become self-critical and develop a capacity for self-correction.
      Quality assessment and quality assurance procedures could for instance not only help to
      reconcile European academic traditions with the need to strengthen competitiveness, but also
      to establish a 'holistic' higher education which fulfils not only economic but also social and
      cultural needs.
15 The European citizen is interested in accountability not only as a tax payer and the main
      contributor to the State funding of higher education, but also as a sometimes fee-paying
      student. Young people have the right to know the quality level of courses available in order to
      make an informed choice and obtain the right qualifications.
III. LEGAL BASIS FOR THE RECOMMENDATION
16 The means available to the European Community to fulfil the general objectives include the
      abolition between Member States of obstacles to the free movement of goods, persons,
      services and capital (Article 3.c EC Treaty) and the contribution to education and training of
      quality as well as the flowering of the cultures of the Member States (Article 3.p EC Treaty).
       In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity set out in Article 3b of the Treaty, the
      Community is to take action only if and in so far as the objectives of the proposed action
      cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the
      scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved by the Community.
       For the area of education and training, Articles 126 and 127 state that the Community's role
       is to encourage co-operation between Member States and, if necessary, to support and
      supplement their action while fully respecting the responsibility of the Member States for the
       content of teaching and the organisation of education and training systems and their cultural
       and linguistic diversity.
 17 The Recommendation respects the diversity of the European education and training systems
       and builds on voluntary co-operation and adaptation. Community action in the field could
       have an added value insofar as the advantages of co-operation at the European level,
       especially in quality assessment and quality assurance, cannot be achieved by one Member
        State alone or a single group of Member States without establishing links to ail the others. The
        pace of change in this area makes permanent exchange of experience and full information on
        all developments in the Member States necessary in order to keep up. As this exchange would
 ---pagebreak---      draw on Europe's overall problem-solving capacity, it could build up the momentum and give
     a substantial and effective boost to the quality of European higher education.
IV. AIMS AND MEANS PROPOSED IN THE RECOMMENDATION AND POSSIBLE
      SYNERGIES
18 The Recommendation urges Member States to consider introducing quality assessment and
     quality assurance mechanisms into their higher education systems and stresses the usefulness of
     systems of this kind and certain of their operational principles, without prescribing methods,
     structures or funding, such arrangements remaining their exclusive responsibility.
19 The Recommendation lays particular emphasis on the advantages of European co-operation in
     quality assessment and quality assurance in helping Member States to meet the new quality
     demands on education systems. Permanent observation and comparison of the impact of the
     legal and institutional frameworks on performance will help to avoid possible undesired side-
     effects of quality assurance procedures in the different Member States and contribute to
     increasing effectiveness. Co-operation will also make it easier to develop strategies for
     innovation in higher education systems.
20 The establishment of a European Network on quality assurance in higher education will
     promote co-operation between Member States and higher education institutions by supporting
     the exchange of information and experience at European level.
21 A whole range of mutual catalytic Influences between the existing Community programmes
     promoting co-operation in education on the one hand, Member States' quallity agencies and
     the proposed Network for quality assurance in higher education on the other, are to be
     expected. Activities pursued by universities, for instance, as part of their institutional contracts
     under SOCRATES-ERASMUS (e.g. curriculum development or ECTS activities) could derive
     invaluable additional information from national evaluation agencies or evaluation projects
     supported by the Quality Assurance Network. Similarly, "Thematic Networks" which decide
     to implement quality assessment for their subject area(s) throughout Europe on the basis of
     their previous work, could obtain direct support from this Network. Vice versa, both links
     could be a resource for information and for building up a pool of international peers for
     quality evaluation. In the long run, a link could be envisaged with other activities, e.g. open
      and distance learning and co-operation between university and the business world, in order to
      integrate graduates in the labour market more effectively.
22 European and international organisations and associations which are competent and active in
      the field of higher education were involved in preparing the pilot projects . A study 10
      conducted on behalf of the Commission, provided a systematic overview of the activities of
      quality assessment and assurance implemented by international organisations and the different
      projects implemented. While noting the number and undoubted merits of efforts by the
      competent international organisations to improve the quality of higher education
      establishments, the study shows that these are nonetheless one-off initiatives. Furthermore, co-
      operation between these organisations and their participation in the Quality Assurance
       Network would not only contribute to create complementarity of interests and multiplier
       effects, but above all would preserve transparency in a field in which confusion could well
       reign if too many different networks were to be working simultaneously on different aspects
       and at different levels.
 1
   °       "Initiatives of Quality Assurance and Assessment of Higher Education in Europe" - Commission document.
 ---pagebreak---              PROPOSAL
FOR A COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION
    EUROPEAN COOPERATION
                  ÏN
       QUALITY ASSURANCE
      IN HIGHER EDUCATION
    (presented by the Commission)
                   G ^oU>
 ---pagebreak--- THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and particularly Articles
126 and 127 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission1 '/
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee12,
Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions13,
Acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 189c of the Treaty14,
Whereas a high quality of education and training at all levels is an objective for all Member States
and whereas the Community is requested to contribute to its achievement by promoting
cooperation between Member States and, if necessary, by supporting and supplementing their
action while fully respecting their responsibility for the content of teaching and the organisation of
the education and training systems and their cultural and linguistic diversity;
Whereas the Council stated in its conclusions of 25 November 1991 1 5 that improving the quality
of teaching in higher education is a concern shared by each Member State and by every higher
education institution within the European Community; whereas in view of the diversity of
methods used for quality assessment at national level, national experience could be complemented
by European experience provided by a limited number of pilot projects aimed at establishing and
strengthening cooperation in this area;
Whereas through developments and activities in the Member States as well as through
transnational cooperation and the mobility of students and teaching staff (particularly in the
framework of Community programmes such as SOCRATES and especially its ERASMUS chapter)
the awareness of European higher education institutions of the need to be able to judge the quality
of studies available in other countries and to compare it with that of studies available within their
own systems has been substantially raised;
Whereas one of the main issues of the Commission memorandum on higher education16
highlights that the former view of a vertical quality hierarchy of educational institutions whose
qualifications are traditionally considered as different entrance tickets to society is becoming
increasingly obsolete; whereas the emphasis today is more on quality across the whole of
education and within each institution; whereas quality should be guaranteed at all levels and in all
sectors, with differences only in terms of objectives, methods and educational demand; whereas
there is support for the introduction of efficient and acceptable methods of quality evaluation
which are based on European cooperation and transnational exchange of experience and which
 emphasise the importance of quality assurance for strategic management as well as its cultural
 dimension;
  11
        O) No
  12
        OJNo.
  13    OJNo.
  14
  15
        O) No C 321, 12.12.1991, p. 2
  16
        The outlook for Higher Education in the European Community; Responses to the Memorandum, Studies of the
        Task Force Education Training and Youth N° 2, Luxembourg 1993
 ---pagebreak--- Whereas a Commission study17 on the state of quality assurance in the Member States revealed
that the new systems of quality assurance had certain points In common; whereas the two pilot
projects conducted subsequently were based on these core elements of existing national systems;
whereas they tested the common method successfully and showed that the actors in the field are
all eager to pursue the exchange of experience during the reorganisation of higher education In
general and the development of quality assurance In particular18;
Whereas higher education institutions have not only to meet the educational and professional
requirements of a world-wide 'knowledge society', but aiso to address social problems nationally;
whereas they aim to guarantee the quality of teaching by developing new initiatives (individually
or on a collaborative basis within higher education associations) in order to give the services they
provide the required attributes;
Whereas m view of the ever greater constraints of global competition as well as of mass education,
authorities in all Member States face the task to tailor higher education systems and their
relationships to state and society in ways which respect existing academic norms and values, and
reinforce the autonomy and responsibility of higher education institutions;
Whereas the discussion of the Commission communication of 13 February 1994 1 9 has
demonstrated that all Member States are currently considering introducing or overhauling systems
to improve mutual recognition of academic or professional qualifications; whereas quality
assurance in higher education can contribute to the necessary flexibility and help to modernise
higher education institutions;
Whereas the White Paper Growth, Competitiveness and Employment20 identifies as a weakness at
 European level the lack of an open education area In the Community resulting from an
insufficiently transparent system of qualifications; it considers the wealth of nations to be
increasingly based on the creation and exploitation of knowledge and states that the key elements
in competitiveness include the quality of education and training as well as the way in which
corporate strategies are able to react to the changes in society;
Whereas the White Paper on Teaching and Learning21 and the premise of the "learning society",
on which it is based, stresses the role of education and training as the "main vehicles for self-
awareness, belonging, advancement and self-fulfilment", and that the "individual's place in relation
to their fellow citizens will increasingly be determined by their capacity to learn and master
fundamental knowledge"; as the social and cultural functions of education and training on the one
hand and their economic functions on the other are indlvlsibiy linked, demands In terms of the
quality of education and training are correspondingly multidimensional and vitally important for all
European citizens;
Whereas the Commission Green Paper22 on obstacles to transnational mobility highlights the
difficulties encountered by students wishing to pursue their studies on a transnational basis and
stresses that this type of mobility is essential for an education of high quality which can enable
 1
   7    Quality Management and quality assurance in European higher education. Methods and mechanisms, Study N°
        1 of the Task Force Human Resources, Education, Training and Youth, Luxembourg 1993
 i8     Information Note on the Results of the European Pilot Projects for Evaluating Quality in Higher Education
        (SEQ96) 800), presented by the Commission to the Council of Ministers on 6th May 1996.
 19
        COM(94) 596 final
20
        Growth, Competitiveness, Employment. The challenges and ways forward Into the 21st century, White
        paper, Brussels, Luxembourg 1994, p. 80
2
   1    Teaching and learning - Towards the learning society, White Paper, Brussels, Luxembourg > 995, p. 16/17
22
        Green Paper - Education, Training, Research - The obstacles to transnational mobility. COM(96) 462 final.
 ---pagebreak--- individuals to meet European and international standards and to take advantage of freedom of
movement within the Community;
I.   HEREBY RECOMMENDS TO MEMBER STATES:
     A. to establish, within their responsibilities for the organisation of their higher education
          systems, transparent quality assessment and quality assurance systems with the following
          aims:
               to safeguard the quality of higher education within the specific economic, social and
               cultural context of their countries while taking due account of the European
               dimension and of international requirements;
          -    to help higher education institutions use quality assurance techniques as         steering
               mechanisms to promote organisational flexibility for permanent improvement in a
               rapidly changing environment;
               to underpin European and world-wide cooperation in order to benefit from each
               other's experience for the accomplishment of the two foregoing tasks;
     B.   to base systems of quality assessment and quality assurance on the following principles:
          Autonomy and independence of the bodies responsible for quality assessment and
          quality assurance
          These bodies should be autonomous and independent in relation to the political authorities
          and to the higher education institutions themselves in relation to procedural and
          methodological matters.
          Relating evaluation procedures to the profile of institutions while respecting their
         autonomy
          Quality assessment and quality assurance procedures should involve questions of institutional
         self understanding, especially how they define their aims and objectives, be it at the level of
         the institution, of the department or of the discipline, in order to allow for diverse educational
         responses to different societal needs.
         Internal and external procedural elements
         All quality assessment and quality assurance procedures should consist of an internal, self-
         reflective component and an external component, based on the appraisal of external experts.
         Involvement of all the players
          The internal element should involve all the relevant players within the institution in the
         process of self-reflexion, especially teaching staff and administrators in charge of academic
         and professional guidance, as well as students.
          The external element should be a process of cooperative consultation and advice between
          independent expertsfromoutside and players from within the institution.
         Alumni, social partners, professional associations and other interested social groups could be
          included in the expert groups in order to bring relevant social and professional criteria to
          bear.
 ---pagebreak---        // is recommended to include foreign experts from other Member States in the groups of
       external experts. They can contribute to quality assessment and assurance by providing
       experiences from abroad, relating the observed processes to standards prevailing in other
       countries and by fostering cultural understanding.
       Publication of evaluation reports
       Reports on quality assessment and assurance procedures and their outcomes should be
       published in a form appropriate to each Member State and should provide a source of good
       reference material for cooperation partners andfor the interested public.
    C. to ensure that follow-up measures are taken at national or regional or other level in order
       to enable higher education institutions to implement their plans for improving the quality
       of studies and for integrating graduates into the labour market more effectively.
    D. to ensure that high priority Is given by public authorities and by the management of
       higher education institutions to continuous exchange of experience and cooperation in
       quality assessment and quality assurance with other Member States, as well as with
       international organisations and associations active in the field of higher education;
II. AND, TO THIS END, REQUESTS THE COMMISSION :
    1.  to support the establishment of a "European Quality Assurance Network" of bodies
        responsible for quality assessment and quality assurance, designated by the Member
        States, and of organisations and associations within the European Community with
        quality assessment or quality assurance experience in the field of higher education;
        The tasks of this "Network" could include:
        a)   exchange of information and experience through European conferences, workshops
             and by using new technologies;
        b)   technical assistance to individual Member State authorities in implementing concrete
             projects for establishing or improving quality assessment and quality assurance
             procedures and mechanisms;
        c)   assistance to groups of higher education institutions from different Member States
             who wish to cooperate in quality assessment or assurance, particularly in the
             framework of tiie "Thematic Networks" under the ERASMUS Chapter of the
             SOCRATES programme;
        d)   other assistance to higher education institutions including information on new
             methodological developments and examples of good practice, facilitating contact
             with international experts by forming a "pool" or preparing a "tool kit" of
             methodological instruments for obtaining information necessary for quality
             assessment and quality assurance procedures;
        e)    linking quality assurance with other Community activities developed especially in the
              framework of the SOCRATES and the LEONARDO DA VINCI programmes, or
             with the recognition of qualifications at European level;
         0    preparation of methods to achieve better integration of graduates in the European
              labour market;
                                                 10
 ---pagebreak---    The "European Quality Assurance Network" will be eligible for financial support in the
   framework of the SOCRATES and the LEONARDO DA VINCI programmes, subject to
   their objectives and normal procedures. A tangible business sector involvement in the
   assurance of quality in higher education is necessary for the latter, but is also desirable
   for SOCRATES;
2. to present every two years reports to the Council, to the European Parliament and other
   relevant institutions of the European Community on the development of quality
   assessment and quality assurance systems in the Member States and on cooperation
   activities at European level;
   in the light of these reports, to submit appropriate proposals to strengthen quality
    assurance in higher education.
                                           u
 ---pagebreak---                                                                   ISSN 0254-1475
                                                           COM(97)159fioal
                                             DOCUMENTS
EN                                                                            16
                                    Catalogue number : CB-CO-97-147-EN-C
                                                             ISBN 92-78-18319-9
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