Brief Diachronic Analysis of Regulations on External Quality Assessment in Higher Education

Abstract

The year 2023 was marked by the adoption of Law No. 199/2023 on Higher Education, followed in August of the current year by the publication in the Official Gazette of Romania of Government Decision No. 962/2024 approving the Methodology for the External Evaluation of Quality in Higher Education, which is set to enter into force on February 9, 2025. Both the organic law and the implementing act concerning quality assurance in higher education, while maintaining the general framework established by the now-repealed National Education Law No. 1/2011 and Government Decision No. 1418/2006 approving the Methodology for External Evaluation, Standards, Reference Standards, and the List of Performance Indicators of the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (also repealed), have inevitably introduced a series of new provisions regarding specific procedures. In this study, we focus on those legal norms we consider essential, capable of generating significant changes in the activity concerned, both at the institutional level and in relation to external quality evaluation. In any case, we can conclude that the new regulations clarify several essential aspects for ensuring quality in higher education.