The EU programme Erasmus+ aims to improve the quality and efficiency of European education systems. The proposed project will establish an international strategic partnership to consider quality management measures suitable for use in institutions of higher education. By involving experts from within and outside institutions of higher education, a robust and trustworthy procedure for quality management will be developed, tested and disseminated. The issues of competence-based teaching in institutions of higher education and its evaluation are coming increasingly into the focus of debate, especially in the European Union. This is also reflected by the “Standards and Guidelines for Quality Management in European Higher Education Institutions”(European Standards and Guidlines; ENQA, 2009) which are currently being revised. However, evaluation instruments often assess only single student competencies or specific elements of the teaching process. The aim of the proposed project is to provide a more comprehensive internal quality management procedure (short “IQM procedure”) that can contribute to sustainable improvement of competence-based teaching in institutions of higher education. Furthermore, the IQM procedure will address issues of the revised European standards and guidelines (e.g. basic and transversal skills or the EU transparency and recognition tools). The IQM procedure primarily addresses institutions of higher education that have developed and implemented a competence-based curriculum, as the number of such institutions is growing rapidly. It will be primarily designed for internal quality management at institutions of higher education, to be undertaken by internal evaluators or quality managers. The three concrete objectives of the project are: 1. Developing a European Toolkit for internal quality management in competence-based higher education that addresses the European standards and guidelines as well as EU transparency and recognition tools. 2. The participating institutions of higher education will have started a pilot project to implement and test the internal quality management procedure. 3. The European Toolkit will be available for European higher education institutions. A total of ten institutions will participate: Five institutions form the so-called implementation team: (1) University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, (2) University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, (3) University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, (4) University of Oldenburg, Germany, and (5) Vilnius University, Lithuania. These five institutions have experience with competence-based teaching and are interested in implementing an internal quality management procedure for competence-based teaching. The University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, which is the coordinating institution, has experience with a scientific pilot study on competence-based evaluation instruments. The activities of the implementation team are (a) developing the tools of the European Toolkit (templates for workshop procedures, questionnaires, reports, etc.), (b) implementing and testing the European Toolkit at their higher education institutions, and (c) disseminating the European Toolkit to a mostly local target audience. The other five institutions form the expert team: (6) ENQA, (7) EAEVE, (8) AQ Austria, (9) Bologna experts from the University of Economics and Business, Vienna, and (10) evaluation experts from the University of Vienna. The expert team has international expertise in quality assurance in higher education and brings different perspectives of quality management. The expert team (a) substantially participates in developing the tool “Practical Guidelines”, (b) continually reviews the other tools developed by the implementation team, (c) gives advice in the implementation phase and (d) disseminates the European Toolkit to a mostly international target audience. The most important result of the project will be the European Toolkit, including practical guidelines on how to implement internal quality management for competence-based teaching as well as a template for an online questionnaire to collect data on student competencies and competence-based teaching. The project will impact the project participants (e.g. by integrating different perspectives on quality management) and the participating organizations (e.g. by anchoring the standards of quality assurance associations in the procedure), as well as the ultimate target group, which is European institutions of higher education that will receive information on the IQM procedure and access to the European Toolkit. The potential longer-term benefits are wide-ranging. The most important benefit is that European institutions of higher education can implement the IQM procedure for competence-based teaching by using the European Toolkit and hence assure high student competencies.
TWO TOPICS became prevalent in European Higher Education Area in the past years due to the Bologna Process. The first topic is COMPETENCE-BASED HIGHER EDUCATION. The focus now is more on students and their competences and less on teachers and their imparting knowledge. This results in a fundamental shift in higher education as new curricula, teaching methods, exam formats, and learning strategies are implemented. The second topic is QUALITY. Quality and efficiency of European education systems are fostered by different strategies like the ‘Standards and Guidelines for Quality Management in European Higher Education Institutions’ (ESG, 2015) or the EU programme Erasmus+. As a consequence many higher education institutions (HEIs) are now looking for new quality management procedures that address the students’ competences as well as the competence-based teaching and learning process. The PROJECT ‘Internal Quality Management: Evaluating and Improving Competence-Based Higher Education’ picked up the need for a new procedure. We developed a procedure that is primarily designed for internal quality management at HEIs, to be undertaken by internal evaluators or quality managers. Our project had three OBJECTIVES: 1. WE DEVELOPED a new quality management procedure and an according toolkit that helps HEIs in implementing the new procedure. The Toolkit is called ‘European Toolkit for Internal Quality Management in Competence-Based Higher Education’. 2. WE IMPLEMENTED and tested the new procedure and the European Toolkit in five HEIs. 3. WE DISSEMINATED the European Toolkit to European HEIs. The PROJECT CONSORTIUM consisted of ten partners, coordinated by Vetmeduni Vienna. Five HEIs formed the so-called IMPLEMENTATION TEAM: (1) University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, (2) University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, (3) University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, (4) University of Oldenburg, Germany, and (5) Vilnius University, Lithuania (all public and non-profit institutions). These five HEIs already had experience with competence-based teaching. They implemented and tested the newly developed procedure and the European Toolkit. The University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, additionally brought in experience with a scientific pilot study on competence-based evaluation instruments in developing the European Toolkit. The ACTIVITIES of the implementation team were (a) developing the tools of the European Toolkit, (b) implementing and testing the European Toolkit at their higher education institutions, and (c) disseminating the European Toolkit to a mostly local target audience. The other partners formed the EXPERT TEAM: (6) ENQA (non-public, non-profit), (7) EAEVE (non-public, non-profit), (8) AQ Austria (public, non-profit), (9) as well as experts from the University of Economics and Business, Vienna (public, non-profit), and from (10) the University of Vienna (public, non-profit). The expert team provided international expertise in quality assurance in higher education as well as expertise in competence research, evaluation research, and implementation research. The ACTIVITIES of the expert team were (a) developing a handbook, (b) continually reviewing the other tools developed by the implementation team, (c) giving advice in the implementation phase and (d) disseminating the European Toolkit to a mostly international target audience. The project had three main RESULTS. The first result is the European Toolkit, which includes many tools: • A handbook on how to implement internal quality management for competence-based teaching and learning. • Information material for decisions-makers, students, teachers, etc. • Workshop ideas • Templates for questionnaires • Template for a report • Collection of possible measures for quality enhancement and quality assurance • and many more The second result is the implementation of the new procedure in five HEIs as well as experience and lessons learned. The third result is the wide range of dissemination activities and -products. The most important dissemination product is the project website www.iqm-he.eu where the toolkit as well as the implementation partners’ experience is freely available. The project had IMPACT on the project participants (e.g. by integrating different perspectives on quality management, now having an expert network) and the participating organizations (e.g. by implementing a new quality management procedure), as well as the ultimate target group, which is European HEIs that received information on the project and its results (via website, newsletters, conference talks, workshops, etc.). Due to a long list of implementation and dissemination actions within the project we are looking forward to the LONGER-TERM BENEFITS of our project: European Toolkit provides a helpful piece of the puzzle for enhancing the quality and efficiency of the European higher education institutions.