Quality assurance and its impact from higher education institutions’ perspectives: methodological approaches, experiences and expectations

Abstract

This paper reports on methodological approaches, experiences and expectations referring to impact analysis of quality assurance from the perspective of three higher education institutions (students, teaching staff, quality managers) from Germany, Finland and Romania. The presentations of the three sample institutions focus on discussing the core characteristics of quality assurance procedures applied and their expected and observed impacts, and how intended and non-intended undesirable ones are measured. It turns out that all sample institutions have already some instruments and sub-procedures in place for impact analysis of quality assurance and all of them are striving for further improvement by applying internal and external quality assurance procedures and impact analyses. Finally, a closer look at the recently revised Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area shows that the European sample institutions are on their way towards coherent quality assurance policies, while there is also room left for further improvement and investigation (for example, in implementing systematic methodologies of impact evaluation and quality policies in general).