This study presents an evaluation of the centres of excellence in higher education in Finland. This approach is an example of enhancement-led evaluation aiming to improve the long-term development of education. The study presents the Degree Programme in Civil Engineering of the Turku University of Applied Sciences, which was awarded the…

This report is a product of an ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) seminar on the first external evaluations of quality assurance agencies, held in Paris in July 2008. The seminar took stock of the achieved reviews of agencies to learn lessons from these first outcomes and, hence, provided a platform for…

Discusses indicator systems and the relationship among indicators, development, and accountability for strategic management of school system improvement. Explains a system of indicators developed to monitor the effectiveness of practice, highlighting these indicators' dual purpose (school development and quality management). Areas requiring most…

The article examines harmonization of higher education as an prerequisite of improvement of study quality in Lithuania. It overviews the development of higher education and criteria of university and higher non-university study programmes. An assumption is made that higher university and higher non-university studies are poorly harmonized and the…

Presents a historical explanation of Hong Kong's expanding higher education sector. Describes quality assurance mechanisms deployed by the Open Learning Institute of Hong Kong to review and assess its own development, the degree programs it offers, and the courses in each degree program. (Author/JMV)

Internalization of higher education will be remembered as one of the major challenges and accomplishments of the last two decades. This paper introduces the concept of qualitative and quantitative tracking measures to enable a monitoring of progress and quality toward specified objects or targets. The purpose of this paper is: (1) to emphasize the…

The history of (external) quality assurance schemes in European higher education since ca. 1980 is sketched in this article. The three pioneering countries in Western Europe are taken as models of different developments and contrasted with the rise of accreditation in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989. Using theoretical insights, the dynamics…

Both of these "Surveys of policy and practice" were conducted on behalf of COL by the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE) as part of COL's partnership agreement with the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) Working Group on Distance Education and Open Learning. The first report identifies…