The Council of Europe organised a forum on legitimacy of quality assurance in higher education in its headquarters in Strasbourg, France. The forum explored the role of the public authorities and higher education institutions in establishing QA legitimacy in HE. It also considered the role of the Steering Committee for Higher Education and Research (CDESR) as a pan-European policy forum for addressing questions of principle relating to quality assurance.
This third CoE Forum of Higher Education looked at the triangle of public responsibility, governance and quality assurance. In addition to focussing on the roles and responsibilities of public authorities and higher education institutions in quality assurance, the Forum considered elements of importance to the legitimacy and acceptance of quality assurance methods and results. In accordance with the Council of Europe’s longstanding activities on the recognition of qualifications, the relationship between recognition and quality assurance was also an important topic.