Recent European developments
There were some very recent developments in Europe that need to be taken
into account. Comparing state approval versus accreditation schemes, in the
years 1998 and 2003, reveals an overwhelming movement from state approval
towards accreditation schemes (Schwarz and Westerheijden 2004). All recently
implemented quality systems are also based on accreditation rather than on
quality assessment (e.g. Germany, Austria and Norway). This might reflect an
increased lack of trust in higher education institutions to satisfy the government
and society about their capacity to ensure adequate standards of quality.
For Neave (2004) “the creation of new model accreditation agencies added
further to the apparatus of verification…” which corresponded to “the
replacement of a circle of trust and confidence with a cycle of suspicion”
(Jeliaskova 2001; van Brueggen et al 1998).
The quality agencies that had some relation with universities (cases of
Flanders, Portugal and the Netherlands) did not resist the shift in the emphasis
of quality assurance from improvement to accountability and were dismissed