Quality assurance in higher education: European cooperation

The committee adopted the report by Mrs Renate HEINISCH (PPE, D) on the proposal for a recommendation on quality assurance in higher education, particularly through the establishment of assessment procedures and the creation of a 'European quality assurance network'. In her report, Mrs HEINISCH underlined how important it was for higher educational establishments to be autonomous so as to preserve the cultural diversity of education systems. She therefore stressed the need to make this recommendation less restrictive. She also hoped that the budget resources and experience gained from existing programmes (SOCRATES, LEONARDO) would be exploited to the full in this respect. �