Quality assurance processes have developed in Latin America since the beginning of the 1990s, trying to deal with the changes in higher education. This article is organized from two main perspectives: the first is mostly descriptive, and it focuses first on a brief outline of structural changes, that impact on the features of higher education in the region; the response from Latin America, in terms of national systems and subregional and regional arrangements; and then on the perceived effects of the implementation of quality assurance mechanisms on higher education institutions. Based on that information, the second part has a prospective approach: it identifies some of the main challenges, that have to do with the need not to do ‘more of the same’ but rather, to develop a second generation of quality assurance processes, and makes suggestions about possible actions for policy makers, higher education institutions and quality assurance agencies. First published online: 30 November 2017

中文翻译：

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拉丁美洲的质量保证：现状和未来挑战

自1990年代初以来，拉丁美洲就建立了质量保证程序，试图应对高等教育的变化。本文从两个主要角度进行组织：第一个主要是描述性观点，第一个重点是对结构变化的简要概述，这些变化对本地区高等教育的特征产生了影响。拉丁美洲在国家制度以及次区域和区域安排方面的回应；然后是实施质量保证机制对高等教育机构产生的明显影响。根据这些信息，第二部分采用了一种前瞻性的方法：它确定了一些主要挑战，这些挑战与不需要“做更多相同的事情”而是开发第二代质量保证流程有关，并就政策制定者，高等教育机构和质量保证机构可能采取的措施提出建议。首次在线发布：2017年11月30日