Quality assurance of internationalisation and internationalisation of quality assurance in Slovenian and Dutch higher education

ABSTRACT

Increasing attention devoted to internationalisation and quality assurance of higher education reinforced the need to analyse their interdependent relationship, known as quality assurance of internationalisation and internationalisation of quality assurance in higher education. On this basis, the present article exposes the development and implementation of different initiatives for assessing and measuring the quality of internationalisation and for internationalising external and internal quality assurance systems in European higher education. Its specific focus is on Slovenian and Dutch experiences in this field, which are also comparatively analysed. Various documentary sources are supported with findings from semi-structured interviews, which were conducted as part of the PhD research on this theme. By focusing on supranational, national and institutional level of higher education, the article acknowledges the limits of comparative studies that rely exclusively on the national dimension as the main methodological unit of analysis. The results of research indicate that if quality is understood as ‘value for money’ [Harvey and Green 1993. ‘Defining Quality.’ Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 18 (1): 9–34] and/or internationalisation driven predominantly by economic rationales, then the quality of higher education (systems and institutions) cannot be assured or improved by internationalisation, neither in Slovenia and the Netherlands nor in any other country.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• quality assurance of internationalisation
• internationalisation of quality assurance
• Europe
• Slovenia
• the Netherlands

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Maruša Hauptman Komotar is a PhD candidate at Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana. Her research focuses on comparative analysis of internationalisation and quality assurance in European higher education prior to the Bologna Process and after that, with a particular focus on the case in Slovenia and the Netherlands. She completed university studies of Educational Sciences and Sociology at Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana.

ORCID

Maruša Hauptman Komotar http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5061-8357