External Quality Assurance in Estonian Higher Education: its glory, take‐off and crash

This article gives an overview of the recent developments in external quality assurance in Estonian higher education. The author has rejected a common approach to deal with the recent changes in Central and Eastern Europe as revolutionary ones and demonstrates how the newly established procedures represent an unfortunate mixture of traditional thinking within the region with a radical rejection of the recognition of the existence of this legacy. Describing the former authoritarian quality assurance measures of the Soviet Union, the breakdown of the former system, and the introduction of new procedures advocated within the region by various international organisations and consultants, the author shows how the procedures, not internalised by the academic community and not related to the character of the particular higher education system, led to the recovery of the former concentration of power at the highest possible level.