Joint programme quality practice in the European Higher Education Area

AbstractThe developments of joint study programmes and their quality practice in the European Higher Education Area are studied. Such programmes are subject to the environment of institutional complexity. Guided by a multi-level approach and the institutional work framework of analysis, the research demonstrates how a particular quality practice is co-created and maintained by the means of policy work, inter-organisational cooperation and everyday work. The relational nature of quality practice is driven by a recursive interaction of processes, events and activities at macro-meso-micro levels. The joint programme quality practice is tied to the concept of fitness-for-purpose with focus on value-added and innovation. The situated nature of quality work is explicated through the empirical account of day-to-day activities and the practical-evaluative agency of joint programme staff. The idealised value of ‘jointness’ in curriculum integration and joint degree award, and quality evaluation culture are addressed with organisational adaptations in a cross-border context.Keywords: Joint programmesqualitycross-border higher educationinstitutional workinstitutional complexityagency AcknowledgmentsThe paper is based on the doctoral work Institutional work of quality in higher education: A study of cross-border joint programmes defended in 2020 at the University of Ghent, Belgium.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).