Five innovative ideas for the Europeanization of higher education

Abstract

Universities need to work together, form networks and be attractive to students from other geographical areas. To do this, they must introduce changes and innovations in organization, student mobility, new technologies and resource allocation, as well as in many other areas. Innovation is a basic element in the construction of a European space for higher education. The author aims to analyze a particular tool that could serve as a strategy: quality assurance. The introduction of quality assurance in the university system confers a country with an instrument that can be used to construct a high quality system that should include five main functions: to generate strategies to improve teaching, research and management; to provide a mechanism of accountability to governments and society; to act as an instrument for public information about what the institution does; to introduce differential financing systems, that is, one part of financing should be linked to the achievement of results; and to serve as a mechanism for course accreditation.