the key issues in contemporary policy debates at the international, European, national
and institutional level. This multi-level concern is reflected in the structure of this
volume different chapters analysing various conceptual considerations, historical
developments, institutions responsible for quality assurance as well as organizational
arrangements, academic and bureaucratic concerns and practical arrangements at
Central and Eastern Europe level (see the first three chapters as well as the concluding
one), followed by “national case studies” including Latvia, Hungary, Poland, Slovak
Republic and Czech Republic; and finally supplemented by two chapters presenting the
“institutional perspective”, i.e. that of the University of Western Bohemia in the Czech
Republic.
It is self-evident that as this publication’s geographical remit is Central and Eastern
Europe, the “quality assurance agenda” is reflected upon in the context of major
changes which took place in that region since the early 1990s. The analysis presented
had to take into consideration the consequences of departure from the previous
conceptual and administrative model of higher education, a model in which a genuine
concern for “academic quality” was not altogether absent but it was woven into a
complex mix of ideology, party politics and bureaucratic procedures. In addition, the
“departure reforms” had to deal with the “educational boom”, spectacularly illustrated
by the dramatic increase in student enrolments in higher education. The sector was one
of the exponents of opportunity which emerged at the beginning of the 1990s, when
the countries and their societies of this region were finally given an opportunity to
depart from the political and ideological shackles of the past. The boom has also
provided a fertile ground for the emergence of private higher education with a whole
range of local and foreign institutions and programmes. The means and ways of
establishing such institutions and programmes were plentiful and yet, as in many other
domains, the lack of regulatory mechanisms and experience with regard to financial and
academic matters, required courage, ingenuity, determination and not least, luck. It has
not been a “smooth journey” as some have disappeared as quickly as they appeared in
the sector, but a substantial number has continued to function and some of them even
managed to grow in academic status and labour market relevance and become an
integral part of the system of higher education. No less important was the
accompanying diversification of educational offers coming from the public higher
education institutions also keen on taking advantage of and responding to an enormous
demand for studies in higher education.