The 2005 Bergen Bologna Follow-up Conference adopted Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area. The document had been prepared by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA). It develops standards, procedures and guidelines for European higher education institutions for internal and external quality assurance. Institutions have the responsibility to encourage the culture of quality, to demonstrate their accountability, to take into special needs of different student groups, to monitor the progress of students, to have regular feedback from employers, to design student assessment procedures to measure the achievement of intended learning outcomes, to have clear and published criteria for marking, etc.
In this paper, we take a critical look at the Report. We analyse its context, aims and principles. We also study how the Standards and Guidelines have been put into practice. And most importantly, we also ask, what consequences these rules may have for European universities and for teaching and learning in general.
