Further European cooperation in quality assurance in higher education
The committee adopted the report by Ljudmila NOVAK (EPP-ED, SI) broadly approving the proposal under the 1st reading of the codecision procedure, subject to a number of amendments:
- Recommendation A
(Internal quality assurance mechanisms): these mechanisms should be developed
in accordance with the standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the
European Higher Education Area adopted in
- Recommendation B (Common set of standards, procedures and guidelines): the common system should be devised in cooperation with representatives of the higher education community and applied in such a way as to protect and promote diversity and innovation, in particular by acknowledging universities' right to offer quality programmes that are different or more innovative than standard programmes;
- Recommendation D (Licensing): Member States should give the higher education institutions operating on their territory the opportunity to choose an agency in their own country or a foreign agency on the European register, provided this is permitted in their own country by rules or an agreement to this effect with the relevant ministry;
- Recommendation E (Complementary assessment / assessment abroad): the committee drew a distinction between licensing and complementary assessment and wanted higher education institutions to be encouraged to work towards a complementary trans-national assessment or accreditation by an international agency in the European register, with a view to boosting their international reputation;
- the committee introduced two new recommendations on promoting cooperation between agencies and making public the results of the assessments made by the agencies.
Lastly, MEPs introduced a new provision whereby, in the event of an initial refusal of registration, agencies can submit themselves for reassessment after making the necessary improvements.