Abstract:

The Lisbon strategy and the Bologna Process are two of the most known European initiatives that state the efforts for continuous improvement and competitiveness of higher education institutions (HEI).
In this context of an emerging European Higher Education Area (EHEA) that has evolved significantly in the last years, it can easily be observed an increasingly preoccupation for placing quality assurance (QA) at the heart of the system. Establishing common standards of performance and quality assurance under the supervision of independent bodies or agencies, is an essential pre-requisite for creating a dynamic environment of healthy competition among all education providers.
In higher education, quality assurance means the procedures, processes and systems used by HEI to manage and improve the quality of its education and other activities.
Internal evaluation of programmes and evaluation of teaching and research activities represents a catalyst, a control loop of feedback for the development of HEIs processes, both educational and administrative ones.
The recent regulations imposed by the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ARACIS) regarding the institutional evaluations of all Romanian universities focus on how do, or should, HEI implement an efficient management quality system experience that ensures quality, excellence and equality of outcomes.
The aim of our paper is to investigate by which means the objectives of such an evaluation are accomplished and, most important, if they are properly correlated with the national higher education background.
Our analysis is based on the case of University of Bucharest (UB) that was confronted both with a private quality audit and an institutional evaluation by ARACIS. We will discuss the general premises and consequences of the national evaluation process and the specific characteristics of one of Romania’s leading educational and research institution – UB, in trying to draw the future development of the university.

Keywords:

quality assurance, evaluation, higher education, university management.