External joint programme quality assurance approach

The external assessment and review of programmes is one of the key elements in the quality practice. It is a requirement for accreditation of JPs, and thus is treated in the study as a regulatory pressure faced by JP providers. The standards and criteria used in the external evaluation process are part of the emerging JP quality

11 2008 handbook information in the table is provided in regular font, 2012 handbook information is in italic font.

discourse and practice. The concept and process of QA as such was initially associated with the external assessment and evaluation processes in the EHEA, whereas internal QA procedures and systems became one of the focus areas in the external assessment.

The external element of QA was taken up by ECA, ENQA and national Ministers of Education via their participation in the Bologna process as well as national accreditation agencies through their engagement in ENQA and ECA activities. The external approach for JPs was initiated by the European Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA since 2004) in the Transnational European Evaluation Project II. As (Nickel, Zdebel and Westerheijden, 2009) noted

this was particularly relevant to programme accreditation, which is a compulsory external quality assurance procedure in most of the Bologna states (Schwarz, Westerheijden 2004). A step forward internationally in the procedural reliability of programme accreditation was made in the form of the Principles for accreditation procedures regarding joint programmes (Rauhvargers, Tauch 2004, pp. 36-37) of the umbrella organisation of European higher education accreditation agencies, the European Consortium for Accreditation (ECA), and the German Accreditation Council’s regulations on the Accreditation of Programmes with Double Degrees and Joint Degrees (Akkreditierungsrat 2004).

(p. 33)

ECA continued the work of ENQA and in 2014 it released a framework (ECA, 2014) for assessing JPs including the standards upon which the quality of JPs will be assessed using the pre-defined criteria. These include the following six standards:

Table V-9. ECA assessment framework

Standard Criteria

General conditions recognition; cooperation agreement; added value

Learning outcomes

shared by PIs; aligned with the corresponding level in the Framework for Qualifications in the EHEA; in compliance with the requirements in the subject/discipline and, where applicable, the professional field

Programme

admission criteria and selection procedures are in line with the JP level and discipline; the structure and content of the curriculum and its pedagogical approach correspond with the intended learning outcomes; credits (the distribution of credits is clear) Internal QA system responsibilities are shared and coordinated; stakeholder involvement; continuous improvement)

Standard Criteria

Facilities and student support

facilities are sufficient and adequate in view of the intended learning outcomes; student support contributes to the achievement of the learning outcomes and, where applicable, to designing individual study pathways; adequate student services to facilitate mobility (e.g., housing, guidance for incoming and outgoing students, visa issues, etc.)

Teaching and learning

staff (quantity, qualifications, professional and international experience, etc.) is adequate for the achievement of the intended learning outcomes; examination regulations and the assessment of the achievements of learning outcomes are applied in a consistent manner among PIs and oriented to the intended learning

outcomes; graduation guarantee for students and financial provisions; the programme can demonstrate that the learning outcomes are achieved).

While ‘sliced’ in somewhat different categories then the guidelines reviewed earlier in this chapter, a lot of the same key words are used in the standards to describe quality concepts, processes, and principles, e.g., added value, stakeholder involvement, student support, fit-for-purpose approach for staffing, pedagogy, and facilities. There is clearly a lot more focus on the learning outcomes but also compliance and upholding of standards of a certain level and type of studies, etc.

through acknowledgment that any additional criteria and assessment procedures which may be in place at a national level would need to be followed by HEIs aiming for a JP accreditation. An internal QA system for a JP is one of the standards set in the ECA framework.

Section summary

As the review and analysis of quality related developments in the EHEA shows, the process involved numerous efforts of key European HE stakeholders with vested interests in JPs to develop JP support structures, guidelines for management and evaluation of such study programmes including internal and external quality assurance mechanisms. This process of IW resulted in co-creation and maintenance of JP quality practice which was taken up by a combination of actors: policy forming institutions both at the European and national level such as European Commission, Ministers of Education; academic communities represented through various associations and professional networks such as EUA, JOIMAN, students through ESU as well as other HE stakeholder organizations such as EI, Businesseurope, QA associations and networks such as ECA, ENQA and EQAR. A lot of this work was facilitated and carried out by intermediary organizations (e.g.,

EUA, EURASHE, ENQA, ECA, JOIMAN) representing peer institutions such as HEIs, QA agencies, JP providers. As a result of this work, JP guidelines and manuals for its quality practices were developed. To a large extent these guidelines and manuals were based on everyday experience of JP providers, their best practices which consequently contributed to identification of internal aspects of QA.

Various programme processes such as design, implementation, and assessment were modelled to also outline external QA elements. The work produced by these intermediary organizations informed policy recommendations and decisions on quality praxis and were incorporated in the ESG and EAQAJP documents that were adopted in Bologna ministerial meetings. These documents together with EMNEM, EMQA and JOIMAN guides shape the construction and enactment of quality praxis in the EHEA. ESG and EAQAJP represent formal, regulatory elements of JP practice and its normative orientations to be followed and incorporated in national HE systems of Bologna Member States. Guidelines produced by intermediary organizations incorporate those normative orientations about elements of

‘appropriate’ JP quality practice as well as carry out cultural-cognitive elements of best practice identified by JP providers. A recursive interaction is observed between activities undertaken by policy making institutions and intermediary organizations at the macro level, and JP providers at the meso-level in co-creating the JP quality practice.

The emerging field-level JP quality discourse and practice is presented in the following section.