0000000000657508
AUTHOR
Timo Ala-vähälä
showing 8 related works from this author
Reception of the quality assurance commitments of the Bologna process in Finnish higher education institutions
2016
AbstractThis article analyses Finnish higher education institutions’ reception of the implementation of the new quality assurance systems that governments participating in the Bologna Process have committed to establishing in the Berlin Communique of 2003. The data were collected using a web survey and the respondents were classified with a cluster analysis. The reception was more positive in the polytechnics than in the research universities and women were more positive than men. People working in managerial positions were most positive about, and committed to, quality assurance. Most critical were young researchers in research universities working in temporary jobs. Some opinions were so …
Building European‐level Quality Assurance Structures: Views from Within ENQA
2009
Abstract The current article discusses the changes in the role of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) in the Bologna Process, mainly from the ENQA point of view. This paper argues that ENQA’s development to its current status as a European‐level policy maker is to a great extent a result of the European Union’s policy of supporting European‐level cooperation and transparency in the field of quality assurance. ENQA was not the only contestant for the role it now has in European quality assurance. The European University Association (EUA) had long‐term experience in quality assurance and also had its own interests in the field of quality assurance. The te…
Accreditation, the Bologna Process and National Reactions: Accreditation as Concept and Action
2007
This article examines accreditation as a component of the Bologna Process quality policy. The focus is on an analysis of the concept of accreditation in policy documents from four countries (Finland, the Netherlands, France and Sweden). The article focuses on the following questions: (i) how does accreditation appear, as a concept and as action, in national reports, produced for the purposes of the Ministerial meetings?; and (ii) how is accreditation presented, as a concept and as action, in the national context and for national actors?
Everlasting Friends and Enemies? Finnish University Personnel’s Perceptions of Internal Quality Assurance in 2010 and 2017
2019
Even though quality assurance has played a role in European higher education for decades by now, it is still a topic of great discord. While several studies have focused on the initiation phase of ...
Monikerroksista toimijuutta ja monitasoista vaikutusta : Euroopan unioni ja suomalainen korkeakoulupolitiikka
2020
Koulutuspolitiikka ei subsidiariteettiperiaatteen mukaisesti kuulu Euroopan unionissa EU:n vaan jäsenmaiden toimivaltaan. Euroopan unionilla on kuitenkin niin sanottua pehmeää sääntelyvaltaa, joka toteutuu yhteistyön ja verkostoitumisen eli informaatio-ohjauksen tai pehmeän ohjailun kautta. Unioni onkin viime vuosikymmeninä kasvattanut rooliaan koulutuspolitiikassa, suoraan esimerkiksi erilaisten liikkuvuusohjelmien avulla, ja epäsuoraan muun muassa Bolognan prosessissa, jonka kautta Euroopan unioni on voinut välillisesti vaikuttaa eurooppalaiseen korkeakoulupolitiikkaan yli oman alueensa rajojen. Euroopan unionin vaikutus eurooppalaiseen koulutuspolitiikkaan ei siis rajaudu vain sen omiin …