QA and Enhancement Marketplace for HEIs: An Erasmus+ project

Improving European education and training system quality has been set as a key target in Europe's strategy to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy by 2020 (European Commission 2010). These objectives are more specifically defined in the so called Modernisation Agenda (European Commission 2011). More specifically it sets a goal to improve the quality and relevance of higher education. In this process external evaluation and self-assessment are seen in a key role! In the CDIO approach the 12 CDIO standards provide a framework for continuous improvement. Each institution/institutional department are encouraged to regularly do the self-evaluation using the CDIO Standards. Eight European universities identified a need for further enhancement of the self-evaluations and creation of processes with peers to reduce the inertia of heavy accreditations/evaluations in HEIs. In September 2014 these universities started an Erasmus+ project (QAEMarketPlace4HEI) aiming at (1) Developing a collaborative, comprehensive and accessible evaluation process model, methods and tools for HEIs to complement the accreditation systems; (2) Promoting, increasing and exploiting further the European collaboration in the evaluation processes and the exchange of best practices; (3) Disseminating the model, best practices and widen the cooperation to new HEIs in Europe through the partner networks.