International context

In the international context, the quality system for education at CU must be understood in relation to general concepts for quality assurance and quality enhancement and a quality culture, which CU has cultivated in line with European standards on a long-term basis. To be more precise, the sys-tem presented is naturally based on fundamental principles for quality assurance as laid down in the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG 2015). In this connection it should also be noted that CU also draws on the practice and experience of many foreign universities, and chiefly its partner universities within the 4EU+ alliance.

National context

This system should also be viewed in the context of the Czech legislative environment, and specifically the institutional accreditation introduced in the amendment to the Higher Education Act in 2016. In March 2018 Charles University became the first Czech university to be granted such accred-itation by the National Accreditation Bureau (NAB). The Higher Education Act and its related regulations then set the basic framework of rules within which Czech higher education operates.

Institutional context

Ultimately, however, we cannot omit the institutional context, which incorporates the CU environ-ment consisting of the seventeen faculties and the other units and bodies of the University. CU is thus a highly specific type of institution, one that is built on unity in the diversity that makes up the University as a whole, and from which it draws its potential.

The responsibility associated with institutional accreditation was a major impulse for CU to further elaborate its existing internal evaluation system. This was also associated with key institutional changes, the most significant of which was the inception of the Internal Evaluation Board. The Internal Evaluation Board was constituted in such a way as to allow it to assess degree programmes across the whole of the University while taking account of the diverse specific aspects of subject areas. At the same time, this required the establishment of the corresponding administrative support system at Rector's Office level, where these activities are the responsibility of the Department for the Quality of Education and Accreditation. In addition to this, at all faculties the position of faculty coordinator for the Quality of Education was introduced to support the system at faculty level.

All of this serves as the basis for the two main processes for the assurance and development of the quality of education. The first of these is the accreditation process, which consists of the assessment and approval of degree programmes based on applications for the granting or re-granting of permission to realise such programmes through institutional accreditation, or the approval and assessment of degree programmes submitted for assessment to the National Accreditation Bureau. The second process is the ongoing evaluation process, to which all previously approved programmes are subject and which focuses on monitoring and assessing the means by which those programmes are realised.

In other words, the system presented is the result of efforts to place the internationally established principles and practice for quality assurance, on the one hand, into the context of Czech legislation, defined chiefly by the Higher Education Act and the institutional accreditation concept contained within it, and on the other hand, into the specific institutional environment of Charles University.

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