Ex oriente lux ?: National and multiple accreditation in Europe after the fall of the Wall and after Bologna

Abstract

Transparency in higher education is one of the aims of the Bologna Declaration (1999). In a number of countries in Europe, this led to processes to change quality assurance into accreditation, which supposedly results in more transparency. Are there lessons to be learnt from experiences in Central and Eastern Europe regarding accreditation since 1990? I maintain that the character of those 'first generation' accreditation systems is more exclusively academic and drives towards uniformity more than the multifaceted systems needed for Bologna's 'second generation' requirements. A 'multiple accreditation system' would answer these requirements better. Some principles of a multiple accreditation system are presented, together with consequences for external evaluation criteria and procedures. Two nascent accreditation system designs in Western European countries (Germany and the Netherlands) are then compared with the demands set by the Bologna Declaration and with the design principles of a multiple accreditation system. The main conclusion is that although some steps towards an open and flexible accreditation system are set, at the present stage of their development it seems that maintaining national control in these two cases has more priority than achieving European-wide transparency.

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