UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION- BETWEEN CONSUMER PROTECTION AND ACCOUNTABILITY OF HIGHER EDUCATION PROVIDERS

11th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM2011, www.sgem.org, SGEM2011 Conference Proceedings/ ISSN 1314-2704, June 20-25, 2011, Vol. 3, 1315-1320 pp

ABSTRACT

University accreditation is also an important mechanism for protecting the consumers of
higher education, as well as an accountability factor to higher education providers. In
Romania, the quality assurance system has exercised pressures towards the
homogenization of higher education. By the nature of standards and quality indicators
used, but also by his philosophy, quality assurance has encouraged higher education
institutions to comply, both in content and in the processes of relatively rigid
institutional models or prototypes. The institutions which removed themselves from
these models and from the associated standards have been penalized.

Keywords: mechanism, accountability, factor, homogenization, quality