Quality Assurance or Assuring Quality: The Experience of Turkish Higher Education on Bologna Process and QA

Abstract

This paper explores the rising importance of QA in HE contexts, and briefly examines the factors driving its development and relationship to the context of globalised HE. This paper draws attention to some of the rhetoric of QA in HE in global contexts, analysing the assumptions behind QA as well as the reasons behind the urgent introduction of QA into the HE context. Furthermore, it also examines the policy context and the policy drivers behind the development of QA in HE contexts. Moreover, this paper analyses the massification and globalisation of HE, and explores the impact of the Bologna Process on QA. This paper explores the introduction and influences of the QA process in Turkish HE, which provides a good example of policy transfer and highlights the challenges of transferring a UK-specific QA framework to a Turkish national context. In addition to the influences of the Bologna Process, this paper also highlights the effects of QA implementation in Turkish HE. This paper concludes the experience as; harmonization and standardization of educational activities via QA has presumably led to more diversity and heterogeneity across nations.