Promoting Transparency and quality Improvement in Higher Education through International Comparative Evaluation

The paper argues that international comparative evaluations can be used as a means to ensure transparency in higher education and simultaneously stimulate quality improvement of the evaluated objects. The paper also provides advice on how to ensure these outcomes through the design of the evaluation.

The paper concentrates on lessons learned from developing and applying common quality criteria, and the strengths and weaknesses of applying a common criteria approach when assessing quality of higher education programmes in different educational/national settings. Finally, the paper presents some of the conclusions of the evaluation and it’s future perspectives.