Convergence of Quality Assurance Paths in Romanian Universities: Drafting a Set of Indicators

Introduction

According to Australian Learning and Teaching Council, ALTC, (2010), the perspective from which higher education is analyzed has undergone change. Currently, it is considered an economic product, and that, as all economic goods, raises an obvious interest to be fully followed, especially regarding its purchase, which is represented by graduates hired. Hence, there is a growing interest from governments and funding agencies to measure students' employability through the measurement of learning outcomes and hiring processes.

The frame is that of the Bologna Process whose primary objective is to promote transparency, mobility, employability and student-centered learning (Bologna Declaration, 1999). However, engaging governments in cooperation and development of compatible and comparable higher education systems translates into the need for transparent national and international criteria and quality standards, which leads to setting up different goals, objectives, structures, curricular features, etc., of the various higher education institutions.

Moreover, Bologna’s last report (Trends V) debates the measures that must be taken after 2010. These measures focus on transferring attention from governmental and legislative actions to implementing reforms in institutions, enhancing the employability of graduates, opening a dialogue and improving partnerships with stakeholders, and ensuring that the new structures are taken into consideration by employers (European University Association, 2007).

Given that most European countries have universal enrollment for primary and lower secondary education, policies that improve the quality of schooling in terms of students’ cognitive and non-cognitive skills could provide long term benefits.

There is a positive relationship between attending school and the employment rate, proven by the records of Eurostat and the European Commission: the higher the degree of education is, the higher the employment rate (Eurostat Yearbook 2010, Commission of the European Communities, 2009). This reality could be undermined only by the quality of the education. Thus, according to Institute for Research in the Sociology and Economics of Education, IRSEE, (2007) and European Commission Education and Culture, ECEC, (2006), the quality of education, measured in terms of student performance in cognitive and abilities tests, produces substantial gains in the labor market, both for the individuals and for society.

All of these resulted in an inclusion of the convergence of different quality assurance systems associated with the European Higher Education Systems on the Bologna’s list of debated topics.

The challenge has proven to be a great one: not only that identifying quantitative indicators able to adequately capture the qualitative evolution of the quality management systems is a difficult task, but also the cornucopia of possible approaches of the quality, important not to be neglected given their interrelated actions and effects, makes the mission rather difficult.

Therefore, in an attempt to facilitate the better understanding of the above presented subject of interest and also to tap a possible solution under the form of a set of indicators, the present paper analyzes the convergence of quality assurance paths. This analysis, which is the result of research limited to the Romanian universities, is broadly presented below.