Towards Common European Quality Standards: Evaluation of Study Programmes and Educational Offerings in European Alliances

Since EURECA-PRO was established in late 2020, a variety of educational offerings have been developed and implemented by the partner universities. This includes new study programmes at Bachelor’s and Master’s level as well as credited modules and courses on Responsible Consumption and Production (RCP), European values and culture, European languages, and others. Most of these actions were implemented within, at least partially, new conditions, considering the participation of the seven partner universities and the need to find common solutions for special issues resulting from different national rules and regulations. That is why for TU Bergakademie Freiberg, as the Education Lead in EURECA-PRO Phase 1, it was particularly important to create a basic Quality Assurance (QA) framework for educational offerings and to evaluate the educational programmes and activities during and after the implementation. For this purpose, and based on investigation and evaluation data, a number of documents on the evaluation process and their results were completed during this phase including analysis of existing conditions, possible common standards and document templates. QA development including evaluation is a continuous process. At this time, during the transition to the second phase of EURECA-PRO, we summarise European QA standards in education and our experience in implementation in the EURECA-PRO Alliance.

To realise the end goal of a multinational and multilingual European University that offers among other activities undergraduate education, EURECA-PRO has developed a stepwise approach to the implementation of study programmes. This acknowledges the difficulties faced by many partners in developing new joint programmes, especially in a short time period and with strict regulatory environments, whilst allowing for progress towards this final goal by partners that have greater study programme freedom.

Other RCP programmes individually realised at partner universities are designed as the basis of future joint degrees within the EURECA-PRO alliance. These new programmes aim to cut across topics and disciplines to provide a holistic series of courses on RCP, languages, and European values and culture. New programmes are designed with student mobility options and requirements from the start and form integral aspects of the programme of studies. However, these programmes are still based at and managed by a single partner university (see Table 1).

The aim of all partners in EURECA-PRO is to engage in joint educational activity to develop new study programmes in RCP which will go on to form the basis of double, triple, and eventually fully joint degrees, with a single certificate (plus supplements) issued upon graduation. For some programmes, mobility to partner universities in the form of “tracks” will be mandatory for all students at some point during their studies. For other programmes, mobility will be optional, but highly encouraged. Tracks are defined as a series of courses and modules (mandatory, electives, and free electives) that make up a semester’s worth of higher education (normally 30 ECTS) on a particular RCP topic. Tracks allow student choice whilst ensuring that students are provided with a joined up educational experience and guidance in defining their own, personal education path. Partners can offer tracks in their national languages or in English.

Within EURECA-PRO a number of modules and courses have been developed that supplement the study programme offerings of the European University. These modules provide students the opportunity to educate themselves on the challenges of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG12), not only students who are taking part in EURECA-PRO Bachelor’s or Master’s programmes but all alliance and society members. Educational activities are offered on RCP, European Values and Culture, for development of language, digital and presentation. These are the credited study modules, also in the format of Lecture Series, Summer Schools, Challenge-based interdisciplinary courses, and research internship developed according to European quality standards that can be integrated in the curricula and recognised by every partner university.

EURECA-PRO partner universities use different approaches to evaluate their study programmes. To investigate the system of accreditation and partner universities, a survey was conducted that sought to answer the following questions:

Using the above analysis and details of the European Higher Education Area evaluation concept, a pathway to EURECA-PRO evaluation has been planned. This evaluation process is summarised in Table 4. This evaluation process will be conducted in three cycles that best capture the educational offering of EURECA-PRO, at the programme level, at the semester level, and at the course/module level.

Four key sets of stakeholders have been defined in this evaluation process, programme study deans, semester study deans, course directors, and students. Each EURECA-PRO programme has a designated study dean (or programme coordinator) who will be responsible for performing an evaluation of the whole programme. As mentioned above, a key part of the EURECA-PRO educational offering will be the offering of tracks. At partner universities offering tracks, study deans will be defined who have similar responsibilities for the tracks as programme deans have for the programmes as a whole. Education during a semester is delivered in a series of courses and modules by professors, lecturers, and other educators who have been summarised as “course directors”. These stakeholders are the ones that are most in contact with the students and are responsible for planning and delivering the learning outcomes. Students, as the ultimate consumers of teaching and learning activities, are key stakeholders and thus are important to engage in the evaluation process at all levels.

The evaluation process is designed to produce metrics which are easily compared between partner universities. Educators, study directors, and students will be involved in each of these cycles as appropriate. The majority of these evaluation criteria are self-explanatory and already in use by partner universities. A distinct EURECA-PRO criterion that is included for the first time is whether sustainable development principles in educational practice are met. This question consists of two parts. Firstly it considers if the learning content has been designed and implemented through the lenses of the sustainable development goals, particularly SDG12. Secondly it considers what efforts have been made to reduce the impact of the teaching experience itself, for example by reducing paper usage or teaching in energy efficient rooms. In the general comments section, stakeholders are encouraged to record their general observations, experiences, and feelings related to the course, semester, or programme as a whole. The exact data used in compiling these metrics is subject to future discussion and agreement between partner universities.

Through analysing current EU evaluation criteria given in various EU documents (particularly “Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area” and “the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes”), and through assessing the current evaluation processes at partner universities, a new EURECA-PRO evaluation framework has been reached. Of these criteria, many are currently already used by partner universities. Others, such as EDI policies, will be the focus of effort in the next phase of EURECA-PRO, with the ultimate aim of unifying quality standards as a prerequisite for developing joint programmes of highest quality. However, this evaluation framework does not represent the end state of the European University. Evaluation is an ongoing process, and as EURECA-PRO develops new study programmes, modules, and courses in its second phase, and as EU authorities update relevant criteria, EURECA-PRO will continuously update this evaluation framework to meet all new requirements.