Accreditation and the external quality assurance of the university in response to the internationalisation of university degree programmes and the setting up of the European Higher Education Area

Abstract

This article associates the new context of the universities with the setting up of the European Higher Education Area and the use of external quality assurance mechanisms (accreditation). In view of the need to preserve the characteristic of university education as a public good within the context of increasing competitivity stemming from internationalisation, the article points to the development of quality assurance systems in university systems as a key element in balancing out free market forces by stimulanting the adequate distribution of priorities and resources in favour of the modernisation of the universities within a given geographical area.
The second part of the article gives a series of reflections on the accreditation standards being proposed for university programmes as a way of opening a debate on the design of university education beyond the more immediate aim of the external recognition of quality, with accreditation standards understood as being a way for progressively transforming the university.