Taina Saarinen

Position of text and discourse analysis in higher education policy research

The article sets out to address the position of text and discourse analysis in higher education policy research, both from theoretical and methodological points of view. Theoretically, the article presents policy processes as discursive processes, arguing that higher education policies are constructed discursively. Methodologically, the article suggests that when policy documents are used as data, as is often the case in higher education policy research, text analytical tools should be applied more systematically than is the case now. To support these views, the article presents two cases of applications of a textual approach in higher education policy studies.

From sickness to cure and further: construction of ‘quality’ in finnish higher education policy from the 1960s to the era of the Bologna process

This article looks into the discursive construction of ‘quality’ and ‘assessment’ in Finnish higher education policy from the 1960s onwards. The theoretical assumption is that the discourse of ‘quality’ not only describes the developments in Finnish higher education policy, but also produces and reproduces our views on that policy and on the motivating forces behind it. The methodology is text analytical, concentrating on the metaphors and actions connected with the words ‘quality’ and ‘assessment’. The data consists of printed text material by the Council of State, the Ministry of Education and the Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Quality

ABSTRACT During the 15 years that Quality in Higher Education has held a focal position in the field of higher education assessment, the concept of quality has evolved from a debatable and controversial concept to an everyday matter in higher education. The author takes a personal look into the development of the field by first tracking the discursive changes in the debate, and then reflecting on the shift of the quality discussion from a matter of political substance debate to a matter of technical implementation. The article finishes with a look into possible futures of the quality revolution.

Whose quality? Social actors in the interface of transnational and national higher education policy

The article analyzes the construction of national reactions to a transnational higher education policy from the point of view of the representation of social actors in policy documents. The data are provided by the so-called Bologna Process, particularly the development of comparable quality assurance systems, and Finnish responses to those demands. Who is represented as active and who as passive, as European policies are discursively translated into national policies? How are those ‘quality actors’ represented in the policy documents directed at a transnational audience (i.e. the Bologna Process communiqués, as well as national reports on its advancement) as opposed to documents directed at a national, in this case Finnish, audience (i.e. national policy formation documents)? What kinds of policy fields emerge as a result of different representations of actors? This article takes the Bologna Process as an example of the ‘glocalisation’ of higher education policy.

Building European‐level Quality Assurance Structures: Views from Within ENQA

Abstract The current article discusses the changes in the role of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) in the Bologna Process, mainly from the ENQA point of view. This paper argues that ENQA’s development to its current status as a European‐level policy maker is to a great extent a result of the European Union’s policy of supporting European‐level cooperation and transparency in the field of quality assurance. ENQA was not the only contestant for the role it now has in European quality assurance. The European University Association (EUA) had long‐term experience in quality assurance and also had its own interests in the field of quality assurance. The tension between ENQA and EUA is visible in the policy statements of these organisations and in interviews of past and current ENQA actors that were carried out for this study. In order to have a fuller picture of the development of European‐level quality assurance structures, it is necessary to complement this study with further interviews from the point of view of other stakeholders, notably the EUA and the Commission of the European Union.

Accreditation, the Bologna Process and National Reactions: Accreditation as Concept and Action

This article examines accreditation as a component of the Bologna Process quality policy. The focus is on an analysis of the concept of accreditation in policy documents from four countries (Finland, the Netherlands, France and Sweden). The article focuses on the following questions: (i) how does accreditation appear, as a concept and as action, in national reports, produced for the purposes of the Ministerial meetings?; and (ii) how is accreditation presented, as a concept and as action, in the national context and for national actors?

Multilayered perspectives on language policy in higher education: Finland, Estonia, and Latvia in comparison

ABSTRACT This article analyses language policies in higher education (HE) in Finland, Estonia, and Latvia, as well as the European Union (EU). We take a multilayered approach to language policies in order to illuminate the intertwined nature of local, national, and international language policies in HE. We are particularly interested in the construction of national language(s) and the language(s) of internationalisation in our case countries. Finland, Estonia, and Latvia share common features as relatively small non-Anglophone countries in the Baltic region, while simultaneously having somewhat differing political and cultural histories. The results of our discursive analysis indicate that while the three countries have relatively different national language policies, regarding, for example, the position of the national language(s), the institutional policies are more similar in the three cases. For universities, the positioning of English as the de facto language of internationalisation turns the ideology of language choice in HE into a practical rather than political question. However, at the state level, the promotion of English runs contrary to national policies. The EU HE language policy seems to acknowledge the institutional level’s practical demands of English as de facto language of internationalisation rather than follow its own formal language policy of official languages.

12 – Audits of quality assurance systems of higher education institutions in Finland

: Systematic assessment policy in Finnish higher education began to take shape during the first years of the 1990s, after related developments in the preceding decades. Several separate but overlapping developments began to appear that can be broadly described as assessment-linked policy. Increasing demands for accountability in the 1980s were followed by demands for assessment in the 1990s. Assessment was written into the education legislation in the mid-1990s. Further institutionalization of higher education evaluation came with the establishment of the Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council in 1995. Following development of the Bologna Process, in 2005 Finland implemented a system of quality audits, a meta-assessment of higher education institutions’ quality assurance systems. The impacts of the audits can be divided into pre-impacts and post-impacts. The main pre-impact is that the universities and polytechnics have been obliged to build quality assurance systems, or essentially to systematize their structures. The post-impacts are much less visible because there are no direct sanctions.

The International SOLETM of Finnish Higher Education: A Virtual Vanishing Act

This participative inquiry critiques recent management trends in the Finnish higher education system. The six authors, presently working in three Finnish universities, focus on strategic internationalization policy to highlight the argument. Global trends in internationalization are introduced, followed by an experienced-based meta-analysis, drawing on several recent studies by the authors. This analysis points to significant challenges and blind spots that exist-well hidden-alongside the Finnish higher education systems best features. The increasing use of ICT-based management routines are called into question with respect to higher education practices, capacity and linked societal challenges. The analysis indicates these challenges remain unengaged-even obscured by-the rapidly proliferating number of ICT-based university management systems. Although none of the authors are specialists in Philosophy or ethics, the interpretive-level findings presented by this interdisciplinary group of scholars illuminates ways forward for the emerging field of specialists focused on ICT-based network-related ethics.