Assurance and improvement of quality of higher education is of great importance with a view to appropriately responding to the domestic needs of learners and society, and also for ensuring international compatibility of higher education. Various endeavors for improving and assuring quality of higher education have been made internationally, such as (i) a feasibility study of Assessment for Higher Education Learning Outcome (AHELO) initiated by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), (ii) Bologna Process in Europe, and (iii) eager discussions over assuring quality of higher education at Japan's Central Council of Education through its Division of University Affairs.
Assurance of the quality of higher education is not identical with standardization of higher education. Since institutions of higher education are entities in the socio-economic context, discussions over the quality of higher education have to take into account its relevance to the society.
This Open Forum is intended to share experiences of different countries concerning improvement of quality of, and increasing relevance of, engineering education as well as international cooperation for these purposes, thus providing a sound basis for enhancement of international cooperation in engineering education
