Quality Assurance in Higher Education ― Contemporary Debates

Over the past two decades, 'quality' in Higher Education has become a central feature in Higher Education strategy, both at the European and at the nation-state levels of policy-making. This book weighs up the possible consequences of introducing Quality Enhancement and Risk Management as new dimensions to quality control in Higher Education, examining broad trends at the cross-national and continental/regional level and also considers the views taken at the institutional level, among academic staff, students and QA agencies.

The volume includes contributions from Chief Executive Officers of Quality Agencies in the US, Chile and Europe, together with policy analysts currently engaged in shaping up the 'new instrumentality' in inter-governmental (OECD) and European (HEQA) organisations as well as academic contributions from well-established and leading scholars in the fields of Quality Evaluation and Comparative Higher Education policy analysis.

Maria Joao Rosa is Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics, Management and Industrial Engineering at the University of Aveiro, Portugal and a Researcher at the Centre for Research on Higher Education Policies.

Alberto Amaral is Professor at the University of Porto, Portugal and President of the Administration Council of the Portuguese Assessment and Accreditation Agency for Higher Education.