Regulation and quality assurance in higher education: a category of historical analysis

This article deals with quality assurance practices in the general debate of higher education policies. The objective is to discuss the notion of quality of the oldest universities in the era of globalization. Of descriptive, with a qualitative approach, based on the theoretical contributions of the Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI) and Red Iberoamericana para la Calidad de la Accreditation de la Education Superior (RIACES). Becomes a rescue such as universities and higher education have developed in competitive contexts. Revises up the recognition of the state as the main responsible for the standard of quality assurance of universities. It presents the North American accreditation model and the establishment of the Assessment and Accreditation Agency for regulation of the sector's expansion and the integration of these networks in balizadoras agencies International quality standards. It concludes that the pre-Renaissance regulations are the basis of quality assurance notion; the US accreditation model is the best known and adapted and that the Bologna Process is the new politics international quality assurance inducing reflected beyond the European continent.

Key words:
Regulatory; Accreditation; Higher education