The development of quality assurance policy in higher education : a comparative analysis of England, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland

摘要

AbstractudThis research studies the development of policies for quality assurance in four Europeanudsystems of higher education, namely England, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland. Itudcompares how these four countries have adopted the policies for quality assurance that can beudobserved currently and investigates the extent to which cross-national convergence may beudtaking place.udThe theoretical approach to the topic is based on policy analysis. Quality assurance isudapproached as a policy domain within which particUlar public policies are formulated andudimplemented. These policies correspond to the responses of the different countries to audnumber of fundamental choices regarding the organisation of the quality assurance policyuddomain and are composed of ideational (the policy beliefs) and material (the policyudinstruments) elements. The type of response is influenced, it is argued, by a number ofudfactors. These can be either internal or external to the system of higher education and canudoriginate either from within the national environment or internationally.udThe comparative method upon which the empirical studies are based makes a distinctionudbetween diachronic and synchronic comparisons. First, the analysis focuses on the factorsudthat can influence the emergence of quality assurance as a political issue in each nationaludcontext. Then, the focus shifts to the factors potentially at play in the construction of theudquality assurance policy domain. This distinction permits the assessment of the emergence ofudquality assurance as a problem and the kind of policies each country has developed toudaddress the fundamental choices in quality assurance in HE.udThe data consist of documentary sources of different type as well as twenty-three interviewsudwith actors involved in the process of policy formulation in HE in general and qualityudassurance in particular in the four countries.udThe comparative analysis of the national quality assurance policy domains reveals that crossnationaludconvergence has been (and still is) taking place. This convergence, however, takesudplace at the level of the policy beliefs, the paradigm core of the national policies, whereas theudpolicy instruments form~lated in each country tend to reflect, to a substantial degree, theudimpact of national factors.