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This paper analyses the model of Adult Education and Training (AET) in Portugal, taking into consideration the two available reports on this recent domain, which reveal that empowerment is a prescriptive goal. However, this construct continues to be ill defined.The empowerment theory suggested by Zimmerman and colleagues, particularly the psychological empowerment construct, shows enough consistency with the AET model to consider that it might contribute to the management of quality in training.These reports also state the urge for better, more inclusive and more reliable measures in assessing quality in training. Contributions of the empowerment theory to this matter are discussed, attempting to analyze and operationalize it in this specific domain.

The paper proposes to study quality in higher education. It presents the definitional problems related to the concept of quality, and, then, it shows the approaches to implementing quality. Approaches to quality in higher education in most countries have started with an assumption that, for various reasons, the quality of higher education needs monitoring. While there are some conflicting attitudes towards systems of quality management in the West and criticism of the bureaucratic procedures related to some methods of quality assessment, the paper also discusses the situation in Arab countries regarding quality in higher education. To sum up, governments around the world are looking for higher education to be more responsive in face of the needs of a changing world.

As the important part of European integration there is a goal till the year 2010 to create the unite higher education area, which means: considering the needs of European labour market in designing and improving study programs; encouraging the students and staff mobility within the unite higher education area; unification of the systems of evaluation of students' knowledge and skills acquired; increasing the competitiveness of the European universities; unification and implementation of criteria for quality evaluation of universities and study programs in Europe. The Bologna declaration has started a new stage in the development of the higher education area. There has to be a unite responsibility for disseminating the idea of Bologna declaration and encouraging it's implementation in practise in each country which joined the declaration. The European enlargement encourages discussions and shares information among ministries, universities and society about the further ways of improving the quality efficiency and social responsibility of Universities in reaching the goals of the European Union.

Quality education is the main driver for the lifelong learning of people and the development of the organizations and society. Accordingly, also UNESCO's global vision for education towards 2030 is endeavoring to "˜ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all'. From the quality point of view, the existing situation is however very fragmented. A great variety of organizations provide formal and non-formal education for lifelong learning to people having very different needs and expectations, and the education providers and experts are not very aware of the general professional quality concepts and practices. Very recently the international standardization committee ISO/PC 288 has started the work of harmonizing quality management in the educational organizations with the other organizations of the society by using the common professional approach. This new standardization will challenge all educational organizations, because it requires the adoption of the general basic quality concepts and quality management structures and practices. This will enable educational organizations to demonstrate their ability to provide consistently education to the requirements and strive for enhancing satisfaction of the involved parties.

Quality assurance considers that ‘prevention is better than a cure’. Quality is a continuous improvement, where it does not come by chance or by accident and is achieved when every professor succeeds in igniting the minds of students. Nonetheless, across the European Union, there is a diverse picture of how European higher institutions promote quality in teaching and learning. The issue of quality in higher education has been given the attention in the academic and legislative environment starting with the Bologna process. Together with the Bologna process, the Lisbon strategy has led to the development and consolidation of universities, with a view to instating a quality culture. It is the aim of this paper to present the challenges in the European Higher Education area. Moreover, this paper identifies European standards and guidelines that European institutions should implement for the continuous enhancement of quality.

Women situation in the MENA Region countries, have long lived under difficult economic and social conditions, have the worst gender equality rankings according to the Global Gender Gap Index 2017. (The Global Gender Gap report is an annual insight report that is carried out by the World Economic Forum. This tool shows vital gender-based indicators to determine the performance of each of the selected 144 countries.) Some of these indicators are:i) economic participation and opportunity, ii) health and educational attainment, iii) political empowerment, vi) workforce, v) skill sets, and vi) educational degrees.

The article analyses the origin of non university study programmes and their development problems. A special attention is devoted to ,curriculum, as this term had enormous influence when preparing the principles of how to develop non university curriculums as well as when developing curriculums themselves. The first drafts of non university study programmes were presented to the Ministry of Education and Science in 1999. This article summarizes assessment results of study programmes developed in 1999-2002, based on expert methodology and questionnaire methodology, as well as qualitative and quantitative indicators. The results have indicated that there were some problems, such as lack of professors' pedagogical and scientific competence, the necessity to describe the concrete training trend document as well as lack of vocational training standards. To develop high quality non university study programmes it is necessary to set and give some scientific grounding to assessment criteria and results based on assessment scale. Solid quality assessment system necessary for international study quality and Bologna declaration ideas.

TQM is a philosophy and system for continuously improving the services and/or products offered to customers. It can help a university provide better service to its primary customers--students and professors. The continuous improvement focus of TQM is a fundamental way of fulfilling the accountability requirements common to educational reform.Operating a no-fear TQM system with a focus on continuous growth and improvement offers more excitement and challenge to students and teachers than a "good-enough" learning environment can provide.This paper tends to give an overview about Total Quality Management abbreviated by TQM and its core concept due to implement it in universities in order to enrich the higher educational programs. Every body must know, TQM in Education is a timely tool, which must be clearly understood, adopted and implemented as soon as possible.