Institutional accreditation in Europe: how are quality assurance agencies translating the ESG?

The pressures of society for greater accountability led governments and higher education institutions (HEIs) to implement organised quality assurance (QA) systems in higher education all over Europe. The European standards and guidelines for internal and external QA within universities (part 1 and 2 of ESG, respectively) and the European standards for external quality agencies (part 3 of ESG) provide a source of assistance and guidance to both HEIs in developing their own QA systems and agencies undertaking external QA, as well as contribute to a common frame of reference, which can be used by institutions and agencies alike (ENQA, 2009; Prikulis, Rauhvargers, & Rusakova, 2011). Globally, we aim to understand how QA agencies translate the ESG when performing institutional evaluations. In this context, our main research goals are to understand:

a. Whether QA agencies are applying the ESG related to programme’s design, approval and monitoring, in their institutional accreditation reports;

b. How QA agencies are interpreting and translating the ESG, their main concepts and dimensions.