A review of the Accreditation Bodies and Processes in Europe. A vision from the Engineering

Europe has taken the decision of strengthening its cultural links after the successful implementation of the economic union. Many of the states reached the compromise of coordinating their educational policies to create a European Higher Education Space and to promote the mobility of their citizens. Universities play a relevant role in this process. Quality has been considered as an international determinant factor of the competitiveness of Europe. The instrument chosen has been the accreditation of the quality, as in other geographical areas or countries as the USA. This paper analyses the European process to reach the accreditation, the involved agents (like the ENQA – European Network for Quality Assurance, and the ECA – European Consortium for Accreditation), along with the role of the quality national agencies, as the ANECA (Spanish National Agency for Accreditation.) in the Spanish case.