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20EUROPEAN STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE IN THE EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA: A STUDENT-CENTRED PARADIGM
Matvienko O.,
Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, professor, Corresponding Member of National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, Ukraine
Lashchykhina V.
PhD in Pedagogical Sciences, associate professor Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine
Abstract
Strategies formation of the European dimension of higher education nowadays, the reform and modernisation of higher education systems in the EU are considered in this investigation. The article focuses on the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG). The research deals with the setting of the context, scope, purposes and principles of modern European higher education. The article investigates the work of European organizations regarding European integration processes in higher education, the conceptual basis for the development of cooperation between higher education institutions in the European Union and the Partner Countries.
Keywords: European Higher Education Area, Standards, Guidelines, quality assurance, context, scope, purposes, principles, implementation, student-centred approach, institutions.
Introduction. Actually, in the context of formation of the European dimension, a lot of areas of society's life, including system of education which plays an important role as a social institution: distributes educational and scientific knowledge among population, contributes to scientific, educational, technological progress, enhances the socialization of new generations, etc. The European values such as justice, human rights, solidarity, tolerance, and non-discrimination prevail, etc. and the well-being of citizens of the European Union are an integral part of our European way of life.
Regarding the international dimension of Higher Education (HE) reforms, well-known scientists, authors of scientific investigations: Abbas N., Dakowska D., Delors J., Lepesant G., Michel A., Tost M., Nichkalo N., Wulfson B., Zgurovsky M. and others in their works have pointed out the need to consider the educational system within a broader international context.
Taking into account the complex impact of international incentives, development of European dimension of Higher Education, the objective of the article is related with investigation of the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) implementation: context, scope, purposes and principles of modern European higher education and conceptual basis for the development of cooperation between higher education institutions in the European Union.
Materials and Methods. The Standards and Guidelines for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) were revised, adopted and approved by the Ministerial Conference in Yerevan on 14-15 May 2015 by the Ministers responsible for higher education in 2005 following a proposal prepared by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) in co-operation with the European Students' Union (ESU), the European University Association (EUA), the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education (EURASHE) [7].
Since 2005, substantial progress has been made in quality assurance as well as in other Bologna processes such as qualification frameworks, recognition and the promotion of the use of learning outcomes, all these contributing to a student-centred learning and teaching paradigm.
Given this changing context, in 2012 the Ministerial Communiqué invited the E4 Group (ENQA, ESU, EUA, EURASHE) in cooperation with Education International (EI), BUSINESSEUROPE and the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) to prepare an initial proposal for a revised ESG "to improve their clarity, applicability and usefulness, including their scope'.
The revision included several consultation rounds involving both the key stakeholder organisations and ministries. The many comments, proposals and recommendations received have been carefully analysed and taken very seriously by the Steering Group (SG). They are reflected in the resulting version of the ESG. This edition also reflects a consensus among all the organisations involved on how to take forward quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area and, as such, provides a firm basis for successful implementation [3; 4; 5].
Context, scope, purposes and principles setting the context Higher education, research and innovation play a decisive role in supporting economic growth, social coherence and global competitiveness. Given the desire for European societies to become increasingly knowledge-based, higher education is an essential component of socio-economic and cultural development. Concurrently, an increasing demand for skills and competences requires higher education to respond in new ways. Broader access to higher education is an opportunity for higher education institutions to make use of increasingly diverse individual experiences. Responding to diversity and growing expectations for higher education requires a fundamental shift in its provision; it requires a more student-centred approach to learning and teaching, using flexible learning ways and sched-
ules and recognising competences gained outside formal curricula. Higher education institutions themselves also become more diverse in their missions, mode of educational provision and cooperation, including growth of internationalisation, digital learning and new forms of delivery. The role of quality assurance is crucial in supporting higher education systems and institutions in responding to these changes while ensuring the qualifications achieved by students and their experience of higher education remain at the forefront of institutional missions. A key goal of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) is to contribute to the common understanding of quality assurance for learning and teaching across borders and among all stakeholders. They have played and will continue to play an important role in the development of national and institutional quality assurance systems across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and cross-border cooperation. Engagement with quality assurance processes, particularly the external ones, allows European higher education systems:
- to demonstrate quality;
- to increase transparency.
Thus, helping to build mutual trust; and better recognition of their qualifications, programmes and other provision. The ESG are used by institutions and quality assurance agencies as a reference document for internal and external quality assurance systems in higher education. They are used by the European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR), which is responsible for the register of quality assurance agencies that comply with the ESG. The ESG are a set of standards and guidelines for internal and external quality assurance in higher education. The ESG are not standards for quality, nor do they prescribe how the quality assurance processes are implemented, but they provide guidance, covering the areas which are vital for successful quality provision and learning environments in higher education. The ESG should be considered in a broader context that also includes qualifications frameworks, ECTS and diploma supplement that also contribute to promoting the transparency and mutual trust in higher education in the EHEA [3].
The focus of the ESG is on quality assurance related to learning and teaching in higher education, including the learning environment and relevant links to research and innovation. In addition institutions have policies and processes to ensure and improve the quality of their other activities, such as research and governance. The ESG apply to all higher education offered in the EHEA regardless of the mode of study or place of delivery. Accordingly, the ESG are also applicable to all higher education including transnational and cross-border provision. In this document the term "programme" refers to higher education in its broadest sense, including that which is not part of a programme leading to a formal degree. Higher education aims to fulfil multiple purposes; including preparing students for active citizenship, for their future careers (e.g. contributing to their employability), supporting their personal development, creating a broad advanced
knowledge base and stimulating research and innovation. Consequently, stakeholders, who may prioritise different purposes, can view quality in higher education differently and quality assurance needs to take into account these different perspectives. Quality, whilst not easy to define, is mainly a result of the interaction between teachers, students and the institutional learning environment. Quality assurance should ensure a learning environment in which the content of programmes, learning opportunities and facilities are fit for purpose. At the heart of all quality assurance activities are the twin purposes of accountability and enhancement. Taken together, these create trust in the higher education institution's performance. A successfully implemented quality assurance system will provide information to assure the higher education institution and the public of the quality of the higher education institution's activities (accountability) as well as provide advice and recommendations on how it might improve what it is doing (enhancement). Quality assurance and quality enhancement are thus inter-related. They can support the development of a quality culture that is embraced by all: from the students and academic staff to the institutional leadership and management. The term 'quality assurance' is used to describe all activities within the continuous improvement cycle (i.e. assurance and enhancement activities). Stakeholders are understood to cover all actors within an institution, including students and staff, as well as external stakeholders such as employers and external partners of an institution. The word "institution" is used in the standards and guidelines to refer to higher education institutions. Depending on the institution's approach to quality assurance it can refer to the institution as whole or to any actors within the institution [1; 2; 6].
The ESG have the following purposes:
- setting a common framework for quality assurance systems for learning and teaching at European, national and institutional level;
- allowing the assurance and improvement of quality of higher education in the European higher education area;
- supporting mutual trust, thus facilitating recognition and mobility within and across national borders;
- providing information on quality assurance in the EHEA.
These purposes provide a framework within which the ESG may be used and implemented in different ways by different institutions, agencies and countries. The EHEA is characterised by its diversity of political systems, higher education systems, socio-cultural and educational traditions, languages, aspirations and expectations. This makes a single monolithic approach to quality and quality assurance in higher education inappropriate. Broad acceptance of all standards is a precondition for creating common understanding of quality assurance in Europe. For these reasons, the ESG need to be at a reasonably generic level in order to ensure that they are applicable to all forms of provision [1; 6].
The ESG provide the criteria at European level against which quality assurance agencies and their activities are assessed. This ensures that the quality assurance agencies in the EHEA adhere to the same set of principles and the processes and procedures are modelled to fit the purposes and requirements of their contexts. The ESG are based on the following four principles for quality assurance in the EHEA:
- higher education institutions have primary responsibility for the quality of their provision and its assurance;
- quality assurance responds to the diversity of higher education systems, institutions, programmes and students;
- quality assurance supports the development of a quality culture;
- quality assurance takes into account the needs and expectations of students, all other stakeholders and society.
Agencies that apply for inclusion in the European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR) go through an external review for which the ESG provide the criteria. Also the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) relies on compliance with the ESG when it comes to granting quality assurance agencies full membership status in the organisation [6].
The standards for quality assurance have been divided into three parts:
- internal quality assurance;
- external quality assurance;
- quality assurance agencies.
The three parts are intrinsically interlinked and together form the basis for a European quality assurance framework. External quality assurance in Part 2 recognises the standards for internal quality assurance in Part 1 thus ensuring that the internal work undertaken by institutions is directly relevant to any external quality assurance that they undergo. In the same way Part 3 refers to Part 2. Therefore, these three parts work on a complementary basis in higher education institutions as well as in agencies and also work on the understanding that other stakeholders contribute to the framework. As a consequence, the three parts should be read as a whole. The standards set out agreed and accepted practice for quality assurance in higher education in the EHEA and should, thus, be taken account of and adhered to by those concerned, in all types of higher education provision. The guidelines explain why the standard is important and describe how standards might be implemented [6].
Policy for quality assurance Standard: institutions should have a policy for quality assurance that is made public and forms part of their strategic management. Internal stakeholders should develop and implement this policy through appropriate structures and processes, while involving external stakeholders. Guidelines: policies and processes are the main pillars of a coherent institutional quality assurance system that forms a cycle for continuous improvement and contributes to the accountability of the institution. It supports the development of quality culture in which all internal stakeholders assume responsibility for quality and engage in quality assurance at all levels of the institution. In order
to facilitate this, the policy has a formal status and is publicly available. Quality assurance policies are most effective when they reflect the relationship between research and learning & teaching and take account of both the national context in which the institution operates, the institutional context and its strategic approach. Such a policy supports:
- the organisation of the quality assurance system;
- departments, schools, faculties and other organisational units as well as those of institutional leadership, individual staff members and students to take on their responsibilities in quality assurance;
- academic integrity and freedom and is vigilant against academic fraud;
- guarding against intolerance of any kind or discrimination against the students or staff;
- the involvement of external stakeholders in quality assurance.
The policy translates into practice through a variety of internal quality assurance processes that allow participation across the institution. How the policy is implemented, monitored and revised is the institution's decision. The quality assurance policy also covers any elements of an institution's activities that are subcontracted to or carried out by other parties [6].
Conclusion. Scope and Concepts of the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) are a set of standards and guidelines for internal and external quality assurance in higher education. A key goal of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) is the contributing to a student-centred learning and teaching paradigm across borders and among all stakeholders. Engagement with quality assurance processes, particularly the external ones, allows European higher education systems to demonstrate quality and to increase transparency.
The purposes provide a framework within which the ESG may be used and implemented in different ways by different institutions, agencies and countries.
The ESG are based on the four principles for quality assurance in the EHEA: higher education institutions have primary responsibility for the quality of their provision and its assurance; quality assurance responds to the diversity of higher education systems, institutions, programmes and students; quality assurance takes into account the needs and expectations of students, all other stakeholders and society; quality assurance supports the development of a quality culture.
References
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3. http://ec.europa.eu/education/news/doc/open-ingcom_en.pdf
4. https://enqa.eu/index.php/home/esg/
5. https://www.esu-online.org/?publica-tion=standards-guidelines-quality-assurance-euro-pean-higher-education-area-esg-2015
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WE ARE STUDYING THE HISTORY OF ITS EDGE WITH THE HELP OF ART (KUBAN
COSSACKS)
Maltseva L.
Doctor of Education, Professor, Kuban State University
Abstract
Studying the history of our region with the help of art, we thus familiarize the young generation with art, culture, traditions, this communication with life in its most concrete and even everyday manifestations. At the same time, it is a never-ending source of aesthetic joy, a source of interesting thoughts, since understanding the structure of an image, the ability to follow the process of its formation, educate an active observer and an objective connoisseur of the creative process in a person.
Keywords: art, culture, traditions, education, upbringing, history.
The changes that have occurred in the education system in recent years, these innovative educational technologies pose a whole series of fundamentally new problems for the Russian education system that need to be solved in a short time, this will be helped by the emergence of new information technologies related to the development of computer facilities and telecommunication networks, the opportunity has appeared to create a qualitatively new educational information environment as the basis for the development and improvement of the education system, which o will contribute to the development of creative thinking and imagination in the performance of their work.
Innovative teaching of the visual arts consists in creating the conditions under which it becomes a subject in the learning process, that is, learning for the sake of change itself, when the development of a person with the help of art from a side and random result becomes the main task for both the teacher and the students themselves. In this regard, it is necessary to find in the pedagogical process such psychological or psychological and pedagogical conditions that could maximize the manifestation of the independence and activity of the children, as well as advancement in their intellectual and personal development.
For education, it becomes a period of intensive search for new ideas of development. The quality of education is a certain level of development of the content of education; physical, mental, moral development, which a person learns to achieve in accordance with individual abilities and aspirations. The new millennium needs a new modern education system that would satisfy the requirements of the state and society.
Moreover, in the learning process, feedback will play an important role, that is, the information that comes from the student to the teacher and indicates the progress of learning, difficulties and achievements in mastering the knowledge of art, the development of skills, cognitive and other abilities, personality traits in general . The urgent tasks of the methodological work include: improving educational subjects, improving
methods, increasing the efficiency of all types of training sessions.
In the conditions of formation and revival of national self-consciousness, the upbringing of youth on the traditions, culture and customs of their people is becoming especially acute. Traditions are always a new discovery for the current generation, which carries a body of knowledge and experience, proven over the centuries, culture and ethnos.
The differences in the cultures of the peoples of our country, differing norms, values, paintings, languages, all this in general determines the need for an extremely careful attitude to the interaction between cultures of different peoples.
The culture of the Kuban Cossacks exists in the system of a holistic culture of mankind, but this global is internally dialectically contradictory, and the interaction between the individual elements demonstrates as a universal connection of phenomena. Culture cannot be considered fully formed on its own, and there are moments of tension associated with differences between individual cultural norms, values, and religions of each nation.
The culture of the Cossacks has changed and is changing under the influence of technological progress. It is influenced by world culture, and wide access to information makes it possible to obtain information about the traditions of other peoples and their culture. Assimilation ethnic processes also contribute to the changes and erosion of traditional culture.
Awareness and a sense of national identity unite the bearers of its ideas of kinship and the common destiny of every nation in our country. A feeling of personal involvement in compatriots is generated, arouses interest not only in the history of his country as a whole, but also in the history of his land, city, village, his father's places ("small homeland"), in which a person was born and grew up and had a bright image which he carries in his heart all his life. Along with this, feelings of gratitude and gratitude to one's native places, love for
