Why and how?

Danish university study programmes must rank among the best in the world. Denmark must be able to live up to the requirements posed by the knowledge society of the future for a highly-qualified and competitive labour force with a high degree of mobility.

In 2006, the Danish Government presented the Globalisation Strategy to strengthen Denmark in the increased international competition. To achieve this, all higher education study programmes must meet international quality and relevance standards, the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG).

Accreditation is of value to students who spend several years qualifying for work. They are entitled to an academically robust education and to be taken seriously. Ultimately, this will benefit the labour market which is going to take on the graduates based on relevant competences. And it benefits the rest of society which finances the education system. Denmark needs competent graduates to develop the knowledge society of the future.

The purpose of the accreditation system is to create the best possible and most relevant university study programmes. This is ensured by having clear and consistent standards for quality and relevance.

The advantage of accreditation over other methods is that it provides a clear and, in principle, comparable assessment of whether the quality and social relevance are satisfactory. This may not only be used in international cooperation and, thus, to strengthen the university sector in Europe; but will also be of great added value to Danish society.

The ESGs are a set of joint standards and guidelines for the quality assurance of further education. The ESGs were adopted at the Bologna Ministerial Meeting in 2005 in Bergen, and since then they have played a pivotal role in the process towards increased European transparency in the higher education sector as well as professionalization of the quality assurance performed at the universities.

The standards contain requirements for the universities and for the external quality assurance operators such as ACE Denmark and the Danish Evaluation Institute (EVA).