Cross-border higher education in Europe and the role of quality assurance agencies

This article discusses the multiple challenges cross-border higher education (CBHE) in Europe faces nowadays, namely regarding the assurance of its quality. The views of a set of European quality assurance agencies are analysed to understand their role in assuring the quality of this type of educational provision. Empirically, the article is based on the material collected through interviews conducted with the responsible for quality assurance agencies from 10 European countries: Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. The results reveal that almost all quality assurance agencies have at least partial experience with CBHE provision, mainly related to the evaluation of joint-degree programmes offered by European higher education institutions. The cooperation between countries and agencies emerges as one of the main challenges to the development of a common tool to enhance CBHE, which could facilitate the quality assurance process for all stakeholders. © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.