Search

Quality assurance in higher education has become a global activity. In the European Higher Education Area, cross-border quality assurance has been heavily encouraged by the European Commission. Behind this, lies the belief that encouraging competition among quality assurance bodies and introducing a liberal 'market' logic into the sector would result in a better overall quality of higher education. However, some critical voices have pinpointed possible risks of this practice. This calls for a better understanding of the actual implications of cross-border quality assurance. Using a purposely chosen case study, this article reflects on the risks and benefits of cross-border quality assurance in Europe. The case study involves the accreditation in the engineering sector in Belgium by a French accreditation agency, in partnership with a Belgian agency. Benefits and challenges of cross-border quality assurance are identified, as well as several key lessons for quality assurance bodies involved in this type of activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To favour an early exposure of students to professional practice, several engineering higher education institutions have implemented integrated curricula, as proposed in the international CDIO educational framework. In the 1990s, the French engineering education accreditation body introduced in its quality standards a compulsory internship period. Based on this national experience, this article sets out the various models of internships and apprenticeships in French engineering education and presents two curriculum integrations: one in a highly selective public graduate Grande Ecole and another in a private multisite engineering institution strongly linked to professional branches and national qualification framework. To provide some inputs and rationales to educational programme designers in other national contexts, this article proposes to extend the CDIO framework to systematically include work-based learning as integrated activities, to better match industry requirements and student competency expectations as future engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]