Qualitätssicherung im Bologna-Prozess : eine vergleichende Fallstudie der Universitäten Konstanz und Grenoble-II

Abstract

Recent Europeanization processes in main economic areas such as GATS as well as the establishment of a single European currency require an increase of employee mobility all over Europe. As the pre-eminent reform of European higher education, the Bologna process meets this requirement by seeking to create a European Higher Education Area by 2010. In an effort to increase the quality and transparency of final degrees of higher education, the harmonization of quality assurance systems in Europe was promoted by the adoption of the European Standards and Guidelines of Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) at the meeting of education ministers in Bergen 2005. Until now, few scientific studies were conducted on the progress of European quality assurance systems towards the ESG. This study of quality assurance in French and German higher education aims to fill the void in quality assurance research.In the hope of acquiring a better knowledge of higher education reform processes, two questions arise as paramount: What achievements did the universities make in implementing the European Standards and Guidelines in their quality assurance systems and how far-reaching are they? and What are the reasons for the supposed implementation of the non-binding European Standards and Guidelines ? These questions are examined through a comparative case study of the universities of Constance and Grenoble-II.According to the ESG the term quality assurance is characterized as responsibility for quality assurance, quality-related personnel management, internal evaluation and external evaluation and accreditation, quality-related report and information systems. The expression reform is defined as the implementation of elements of the ESG (chapter two). After a discussion of possible theories in chapter three, chapter four applies the coercive, mimetic, and normative mechanisms of the institutional isomorphism to build three research hypotheses to define these independent variables which may, in turn, explain the characteristics of the dependent variable quality assurance system . The fifth chapter illustrates the research design, which includes the research period from 1996 to 2006, and the method of triangulation. The latter combines analysis of documents and secondary literature, and interviews with higher education experts in universities, higher education ministries as well as national and international quality assurance agencies. Chapters 6 and 7 present us with answers to our research questions.The findings of this study show a partial convergence: In some of the examined quality assurance areas, both universities showed progress towards the ESG, proving that convergence exists. However, the fields in which divergence was stated, prevailed over those where convergence was found. In these areas, only the University of Constance made progress while the University of Grenoble-II lagged behind. The comparison shows that the University of Constance has made more progress towards the implementation of the ESG than its French counterpart, despite having similar levels of quality assurance when it was first measured in 1996. Thus, the reality highlighted by empirical data is surprisingly contrary to the theory of institutional isomorphism and proves a paradoxical fact necessitating further research. The relevance of the research topic for future research is still growing, especially in light of the agreed May 2007 deadline, when progress reports are expected on the implementation of the ESG.