<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

There are multiple positive effects of internationalization of Higher Education (HE) on enriching students’ experiences in general and providing opportunities for exchange and development of all segments of university functioning. This paper aims to contribute to determining the role of institutional QA in promotion of the international cooperation in HE by analysing undergraduate students’ perceptions on their international experience and comparing them to their home University.
Individual experiences of students from the Southeast European University (SEEU) in North Macedonia, who participated in Erasmus exchange program in the last two academic years (2021/22 and 2022/23), with regard to the main quality assurance (QA) principles and measurements applied at their home University, are being considered. Their academic progress at the international universities is also taken into consideration.
The aim is to collect firsthand information from the main stakeholders in the QA process about areas that can be further developed, as well as to position SEEU and self-check where it stands comparing and benchmarking it with some reputable European universities in order to better prepare its students for the international job market. SEEU has one of the most developed QA systems in the wider region, created and constantly being developed based on the international standards and guidelines and the long institutional experience. Thus, the paper also aims to contribute to defining some basic standards of internationalization of QA which would be recommended to the institutions from less developed, ITC (inclusiveness target countries) in order to assist them to place and welcome international students more successfully.
</abstract>

There are multiple positive effects of internationalization of Higher Education (HE) on enriching students’ experiences in general and providing opportunities for exchange and development of all segments of university functioning. This paper aims to contribute to determining the role of institutional QA in promotion of the international cooperation in HE by analysing undergraduate students’ perceptions on their international experience and comparing them to their home University.
Individual experiences of students from the Southeast European University (SEEU) in North Macedonia, who participated in Erasmus exchange program in the last two academic years (2021/22 and 2022/23), with regard to the main quality assurance (QA) principles and measurements applied at their home University, are being considered. Their academic progress at the international universities is also taken into consideration.
The aim is to collect firsthand information from the main stakeholders in the QA process about areas that can be further developed, as well as to position SEEU and self-check where it stands comparing and benchmarking it with some reputable European universities in order to better prepare its students for the international job market. SEEU has one of the most developed QA systems in the wider region, created and constantly being developed based on the international standards and guidelines and the long institutional experience. Thus, the paper also aims to contribute to defining some basic standards of internationalization of QA which would be recommended to the institutions from less developed, ITC (inclusiveness target countries) in order to assist them to place and welcome international students more successfully.

Internationalization of Quality Assurance as a Pre-Requisite for Internationalization in Higher Education

SEEU Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

There are multiple positive effects of internationalization of Higher Education (HE) on enriching students’ experiences in general and providing opportunities...

Internationalization of Quality Assurance as a Pre-Requisite for Internationalization in Higher Education

Published Online: Dec 29, 2023

Page range: 166 - 175

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/seeur-2023-0099

Keywords
Internationalization, Quality Assurance, Exchange, Standards

© 2023 Veronika Kareva et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Internationalization of Quality Assurance as a Pre-Requisite for Internationalization in Higher Education

Published Online: Dec 29, 2023

Page range: 166 - 175

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/seeur-2023-0099

KeywordsInternationalization, Quality Assurance, Exchange, Standards

© 2023 Veronika Kareva et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Internationalization, Quality Assurance, Exchange, Standards