Research On The Mechanism Of External Quality Assurance In Higher Education In The European Union

An upsurge of quality assurance movement in higher education has arisen around the world rapidly; therefore, it is universally acknowledged that the construction of external higher education quality assurance mechanism would make sense. Under the impacts of Bologna Process for the European Union, many countries spare no efforts in fulfilling their external quality assurance mechanism in higher education, which might increase the progress of the European higher education reform and develop their international competitiveness.This article concentrates on the research of EU's external higher education quality assurance mechanism by analyzing its history, meanings, functions, operations and characteristics. External quality assurance in higher education has become not only a widespread but also a natural feature of higher education in Europe. Notwithstanding the fact that ministers of these countries committed themselves to the establishment of comprehensive external quality assurance mechanisms at national level which include the evaluation mechanism, accreditation mechanism and register mechanism. For example, the evaluation mechanism continues to be advanced by the way of institutional assessment and project assessment. Moreover, the accreditation mechanism attempts to review relevant higher education programs, policies, procedures and practices in the European Union. Meanwhile, the register mechanism gives access to higher education institutions in the European countries, promoting its transparency, compatibility and international competitiveness of higher education.In order to understand the current role and design of EU's external higher education quality assurance mechanism, this article tries to analyze its quality assurance mechanism tools and methods, but also its management philosophy concerned with literature research, historical research and comparative research. Besides, the thesis will also offer suggestions on how to refine the national quality assurance mechanisms, such as building up EU's evaluation mechanism, accreditation mechanism and register mechanism, as well as promoting the culture of quality assurance.