Make European quality assurance systems more agile and roll out a new approach for alliances
A feasibility study carried out in 2023 showed that the European quality assurance framework has generally proven successful, but is sometimes viewed as costly and burdensome by institutions, especially in the context of trans-national cooperation.
In response, the higher education package features a proposal for a Council Recommendation on a European quality assurance and recognition system, set to replace and update the existing Council Recommendation on cooperation in quality assurance that dates back to 2006.
The key innovation put forward is an alliance-wide external evaluation for consortia of higher education institutions, such as those emerging from the European Universities initiative or other forms of very close and stable cooperation. Existing alliances not only collaborate extensively in creating joint programmes or micro-credentials, but many also strive to create joint internal quality assurance arrangements for their joint education provision accordingly.
