Path dependency and the politics of quality assurance in higher education

Abstract

National policy agendas for quality assurance in higher education (HE) are increasingly influenced by supra‐national trends and decisions. Taking Spain, Switzerland and The Netherlands as examples, the paper analyses how supranational trends are re‐interpreted at the national level and how recently formulated national policies combine the demands for cross‐national harmonisation with the long‐lasting influence of decisions and procedures run in the past in the domain of quality assurance. In this perspective, the paper argues that cross‐national policy harmonisation, a key prerequisite for the construction of the European Higher Education Area is challenged by the long‐lasting influence of national path dependent policies.