The ongoing implementation of the Bologna Process in Europe prompts comparisons with international competitors and efforts to match their quality assurance standards. Higher education institutions must be effective to succeed in research, to provide best academic practices and high quality of studies. Terminological system of pedagogical science and practice of higher education reflects the goals, values and problems, structure and system of scientific knowledge of the XXI century. The process for content analysis is designed to achieve the objective analysis possible by defining the process of the qualities and characteristics to be measured in HE. The article provides definitions of basic concepts that describe the features of tools for measuring and assessing in higher education. A comparative analysis of the practice of applying criteria & indicators is made on materials of English-language publications. Starting from a conceptual discussion around commonly used terms, such as, «criterion» and «indicator», the author has shown that these terms do not have a single universal meaning. The analysis shows that there is no common understanding of what criteria-based means or what it implies for practice. Instead, they belong to a wide conceptual field, which covers various overlapping or closely related topics. This paper addresses the nature of the concept of criteria in relation to higher education. This paper provides examples of use different sets of criteria for the accreditation and external evaluation of Higher education institutions and study programmes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, recognised by the EU as a «potential candidate country». In accordance with the constitutional structure of BiH, there are several regulations for external QA which are combined for each accreditation procedure. The project «Strengthening Institutional Capacity for Quality Assurance» (2013-2015) aims to support the full implementation of the ESG at all levels and to carry out accreditations of all HEIs in the country. In the process of analyzing the institutional practice of the country the problem of harmonizing national criteria with updated ESG2015 for licensing, conducting accreditation of higher education institutions and educational programs has been raised. The author analyses ways of thinking about the practice of applying the indicators for the sphere of higher education. It is stated, that the concepts of «effectiveness» and «efficiency» are often confused. The peculiarities of using the indicator panels (OECD, World Bank, European Union) are described for measuring the quality at the level of the education system.
