Accreditation: The new quality assurance formula? Some reflections as Norway is about to reform its quality assurance system

After a decade when issues of quality and quality assurance have been highlighted in the European debate on higher education, this debate now seems to be moving into a new phase, with increased focus on accreditation. There are several reasons for this shift from quality enhancement to quality control, but the most important of these may be harmonisation ambitions in Europe and in the general wish to increase international student mobility. This article looks at accreditation as a concept and then narrows the perspective to 'official' accreditation. A recent government-commissioned report on higher education reform in Norway is given as example of the new trend. The usefulness of all-inclusive, cyclical accreditation regimes at programme level is discussed: in particular, what such a practice may do to the established tradition of constructive and development-oriented evaluations, based on a quality concept that is dynamic and relative rather than fixed and static. The conclusion is an argument in favour of accreditation, if one must have it, at the institutional level, based on a flexible but reinforced audit method.