Quality in Europe

igher education has seen significant changes across Europe over the last several years. These are having, still today, an impact on all education systems of the continent. Among the milestones of the construction of the integrated European space of higher education (EEES) having had an impact on the European quality policy, one should note:

the Recommendations of the Council of the European Union of 24 September 1998 on European cooperation for quality assurance in higher education (1998 - 98/561/EC) invited Member States to put in place "transparent quality assessment systems."
In June 1999, twenty nine ministers of higher education signed the Bologna Declaration, committing to the creation of an integrated European space of higher education (EEES). This implied, among other things, the installation of a system of legible and comparable diplomas and the organisation of studies into three cycles (Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate)
In September 2003 the Berlin communiqué specified that the primary responsibility for quality assurance is the responsibility of each institution. It recommended the assessment of programmes and teaching institutions, but also evaluation agencies. Identified there were the four principle actors in quality: ENQA, EUA, EURASHE and ESU.
In 2005, in the Bergen communiqué, the ministers adopted the Standards and guidelines for quality management in the European space of higher education (ESG). Through the adoption of this text, the ministers accepted that the assessment of higher education is based on three inseparable phases: auto-assessment, external assessment by peers and publication of results. A new version of the ESS, reworked in order to improve clarity, applicability and usefulness was approved in Yerevan in 2015. These ESG are at the foundation of quality processes organised in European higher education