Many Voices, One Song: The Role of Discipline-Based Europe-Wide Evaluation Tools in Emphasising Enhancement and Promoting the Modernisation Agenda of the EHEA

Abstract

The number of European evaluation tools that exist for disciplines (business schools, chemistry, engineering, fine arts, music, veterinary studies, etc.) and institutions (e.g., EUA-IEP) is growing. The article discusses this phenomenon, using the tools related to the discipline of Music, notably the ‘Quality Enhancement Process for Institutions and Programmes’ developed by the European Association of Conservatoires (AEC), as a case study and concluding with some remarks on joint degrees. As with some other disciplines, a number of the evaluations conducted by the AEC are now being implemented in partnership with national agencies. It is especially in this latter context that the article examines the following questions:

• Are Europe-wide evaluation tools, especially those developed from a discipline-based perspective, more likely than national QA processes to stress “fitness for purpose” and enhancement? Do they support more effectively than procedures developed from a national perspective the modernisation agenda of higher education institutions, their strategic orientations and the requirements of knowledge-driven societies?

• To what extent do these European, sectorially-oriented, instruments offer a perspective that is more naturally geared to the promotion of a European dimension in quality assurance and higher education than those emanating from a national context?