The thesis is devoted to revealing the trends in internationalization of quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) through determination of the theoretical foundations, normative support, organization, content and procedural bases of the investigated process. The conceptual foundations of the studied phenomenon in the global theory of higher education from the perspective of identifying the trends in the development of higher education quality assurance (HEQA) theories and the internationalization of higher education have been characterized. The stages of the development of quality assurance internationalization in the EHEA are identified: 1) the stage of development and experimental verification of the HEQA methodology and procedures in the European region (1991–1997); 2) the stage of institutionalization of the European dimension of HEQA (1998–2005); 3) the stage of standardization of the European dimension of HEQA (2005–2015); 4) the stage of legitimation of the European dimension of HEQA (2015 – present). It is stated that the current trends in the modern stage of development of quality assurance internationalization in the EHEA are as follows: upgrading of quality assurance standards in the EHEA; increasing the number of countries participating in the Bologna Process, which are guided by ESG in the national practice; accelerating of political efforts of the countries engaged in the EHEA to legitimize the cross-border activities of HEQA agencies; the introduction of the European dimension of QA of joint educational programs of universities in different countries; quality of cross-border/transnational higher education; further development of international political, expert and scientific community in the field of HEQA that makes a significant impact on the development of theoretical, methodological, regulatory, organizational and methodological basis for the European dimension of HEQA, the introduction of the European dimension of quality assessment of joint educational programs of universities of different countries, cross-border/transnational higher education; further development of effective cooperation of international political, expert and scientific community in the field of HEQA under EQAF. The trends in the development of the regulatory framework for quality assurance internationalization in EHEA (upgrading standards in accordance with the EHEA development needs, the restructuring of ESG on the basis of a student-centered approach, the preservation of national peculiarities in the definition of HEQA methodologies and tools in the EHEA countries have been identified. The trends in the development of organizational foundations of the process under study are determined: the introduction of mechanisms of implementing the principles of subsidiarity, transparency, independence, cooperation and integrity; the diversity of functions of organizations-collective actors of the EHEA development (political, organizational, coordination, analytical, advisory, integration) in the implementation of HEQA internationalization processes). The trends in the development of substantive and procedural bases of quality assurance internationalization in EHEA (cross-border activities of quality assurance agencies, quality assurance of joint educational programs of universities in different countries, quality assurance of cross-border/ transnational higher education) have been characterized. The current trends (standardization of internationalization of higher education as a holistic system phenomenon; the rapid development of methodologies, mechanisms and training of qualified experts of HEQA internal and external dimension through the participation of domestic higher educational institutions in international projects initiated by Erasmus+; the inhibition of the process of engaging foreign experts and agencies in the processes of HEQA in Ukraine in connection with a postponed entry of the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education into ENQA and the agency registration in EQAR) and prospects for the development of internationalization of higher education quality assurance in Ukraine have been determined.
