The Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity (TENK), which is appointed by the Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland, has updated the guidelines for the responsible conduct of research and for handling alleged violations of conduct (the RCR guidelines) in co-operation with the Finnish research community. The objective is to promote the responsible conduct of research (hyvä tieteellinen käytäntö) while ensuring that the alleged violations are handled with competence, fairness and expediency.
This study has been produced within the framework of the European Union's Tempus programme, which is funded by the Directorate-General for Development and Co-operation - EuropeAid and the Directorate-General for Enlargement.
The data for this report has been provided by the National Tempus Offices, in agreement with the national authorities and the EU Delegations of the countries concerned. The preparation of the report would not have been possible without the close collaboration and support provided by Eurydice, the network on education systems and policies in Europe and the Bologna Follow-Up Group.
The Standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) were adopted by the Ministers responsible for higher education in 2005 following a proposal prepared by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) in co-operation with the European Students’ Union (ESU)1, the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education (EURASHE) and the European University Association (EUA).
Since 2005, considerable progress has been made in quality assurance as well as in other Bologna action lines such as qualification frameworks, recognition and the promotion of the use of learning outcomes, all these contributing to a paradigm shift towards student-centred learning and teaching.
Given this changing context, in 2012 the Ministerial Communiqué invited the E4 Group (ENQA, ESU, EUA, EURASHE) in cooperation with Education International (EI), BUSINESSEUROPE and the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) to prepare an initial proposal for a revised ESG “to improve their clarity, applicability and usefulness, including their scope’.
The revision included several consultation rounds involving both the key stakeholder organisations and ministries. The many comments, proposals and recommendations received have been carefully analysed and taken very seriously by the Steering Group (SG). They are reflected in the resulting version of the ESG. Moreover this edition also reflects a consensus among all the organisations involved on how to take forward quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area and, as such, provides a firm basis for successful implementation.