Quality Assurance

Brief Description

Quality assurance involves the systematic review of educational provision to maintain and improve its quality, equity and efficiency. It aims to safeguard standards and improve the quality of education wherever it is delivered around the world. Building strong Quality Assurance systems is key to providing high-quality education for all and to facilitate learner mobility throughout Europe.

Wide access to quality education and training is a driving force for economic growth, social cohesion, research and innovation – and dramatically improves citizens’ personal development prospects. The European Union plays an active role in shaping the quality assurance framework in all levels of education, in order to develop a culture of quality, to be embedded at European level and other levels and initiate a process of mutual learning and consensus building for the development of common principles, reference criteria, indicators and tools for quality improvement.

Impact at EU level

Taking the policies and programmes of the European Union into consideration different target groups are impacted from assuring the high quality of the education system in the EU:

• Society: Students at all education levels, adults who need to improve their skills
• Education: Schools, Vocational and Higher Education Institutes
• Business: Employers, employers organizations in order to find more skilled workforce

Researches and Studies in the field

1. European Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training: https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1536&langId=en
2. Better learning for Europe’s young people: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/1361c84b-80c8-11e8-ac6a-01aa75ed71a1
3. Principles and Guidelines for Quality Assurance of the European Area of Higher Education (ESG 2015): https://www.enqa.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/ESG_2015.pdf
4. Assuring quality in education: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/4a2443a7-7bac-11e5-9fae-01aa75ed71a1
5. Social Investment Package: https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1169&langId=en