Quality Assurance in Doctoral Programs: A Strategic Issue

Abstract

The contribution aims to highlight the placement of the doctoral institution within the broader framework of the Third Mission of Universities, showing how in both cases the general theme of Quality and its Assurance is at stake. By referring to regulatory mechanisms and scientific literature, it seeks to outline the additional steps needed for the doctorate to rediscover its vocational orientation toward Quality, fulfilling its Third Mission role. Only in this way can the institution truly break away from the tendency to be perceived merely as an 'academic endpoint of Higher Education'.