AN INSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON QUALITY ASSURANCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION. THE EXAMPLE OF THE AUSTRIAN ACCREDITATION COUNCIL (ÖAR)

The ongoing necessity of quality and quality assurance in the whole Bologna process remains one of the main issues for European policy makers. The aim to create comparable systems to guarantee quality within higher education systems are the reasons for national developments and their eagerness to reform. The situation in Austria is in the centre of discussion and shall exemplify one way to cope with international developments and the need to establish a comprehensive quality assurance system. The main purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper insight into the work and problems of the Austrian Accreditation Council (ÖAR), a quality assurance agency which is responsible for re-/accreditation and supervision of Austrian private universities. As the author was a former scientific staff member at the office of the ÖAR, the paper looks behind the scenes of higher education policies and will strengthen the insistent demand for further reforms. In spite of the short history the ÖAR can be considered as one of the main national key players in the field of quality assurance as well as an internationally accepted quality assurance agency.