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VIEWPOINTS TO DEVELOP QUALITY POLICIES IN ENGINEERING PROGRAMS IN EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA

Abstract

Quality assurance in Higher Education is by no means only a European concern. All over the world there is an increasing interest in quality and standards, reflecting both the rapid growth of higher education and its cost to the public and the private purse. Accordingly, if Europe is to achieve its aspiration to be the most dynamic and knowledge-based economy in the world, then European Higher Education will need to demonstrate: it takes the quality of its programmes and awards seriously and is willing to put into place the means of assuring and demonstrating that quality. The initiatives and demands, which are springing up both inside and outside Europe in the face of this internationalization of higher education, demand a response. The commitment of all those involved in the production of these proposals augurs well for the fulfillment of a truly European dimension to quality assurance with which to reinforce the attractiveness of the European Higher Education Area’s (EHEA) offer.

The EHEA with its 40 states is characterized by its diversity of political systems, higher education systems, socio-cultural and educational traditions, languages, aspirations and expectations. This makes a single monolithic approach to quality, standards and quality assurance in Higher Education inappropriate. In the light of this diversity and variety, generally acknowledged as being one of the glories of Europe, technical universities set their face to develop their internal quality assurance systems according not only to the European standards and the guidelines, focusing more on what should be done than how they should be achieved, but also to different factors and sources.

This paper identifies and explains all the sources that should be taken into account to provide the quality policies adequate to the technical teachings, including engineering accreditation programs, funding programs or improvement plans. It is showed with a practical case developed in the Quality Manual start up of a Spanish Engineering school.

Current role of the Quality in the Higher Education

Universities are becoming due to the new changes in the society 1. Universities as part of this new society play an important role for generating new learning and for producing and transferring new knowledge and technologies to contribute solutions to the human, economic, political and cultural problems in the world. Universities have responded to this external pressure with diverse models: entrepreneurial, stakeholder, corporate, or managerial and academic capitalism universities 2 representing the market, competitive, virtual, service, business and other models in order to redefine their position face to the industry, market and the society in general. As consequence there have appeared new cross-boarding higher education providers that are expanding worldwide educational services.

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Tovar, E., & Carrillo, J., & García, J. (2008, June), Viewpoints To Develop Quality Policies In Engineering Programs In European Higher Education Area Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--4473