Transcript 1. dia - unideb.hu

Hungarian Accreditation Committee
– past, present and future
Prof. György BAZSA, President
Hungarian Accreditation Committee (HAC)
From Quality Assurance to Quality Culture
HEA
Regional Conference
Sarajevo, 6 October, 2011
Hungarian Accreditation Committee
– past, present and future
Prof. György BAZSA, President
Hungarian Accreditation Committee (HAC)
From Quality Assurance to Quality Culture
HEA
Regional Conference
Sarajevo, 6 October, 2011
Why accreditation?
 First half of 20th century in US: protection of good
reputation, diplomas and interest of excellent HE
institutions against low level education and degrees.
 Second half of 20th century: increasing importance
of quality, therefore developing systematic quality
assurance systems and quality culture.
 In higher education: to ensure and improve quality
of education and training in interest of all
stakeholders (students, labor market, government).
 For (the knowledge based) society: declaring safeguarded and evaluated quality of programs and/or
HE institutions, transparency, informing the public.
Hungarian Higher Education (HHE)
HE enrollment: before 1990
at present
HE students total:
Legal background:
HE institutions:
< 10% of age group
~ 38 % of age group
~ 380.000 (half state funded)
Act on HE 1993 and 2005
new law in 2012 (draft)
~7 HEI / 1 million people
State
Church/
Private
Total
University
19
7
26
College
10
32
42
Total
29
39
68
HEI
System of training programs
Before 2005: parallel system of programs
- college (practice oriented), 3-4 y.
- university (research oriented), 5-6 y.
Since 2005 (sequence of 3 cycles; Bologna system):
- Bachelor – 180/210 credits, 3-3,5 y.
- Master – 90/120 credits, 2 y
- long masters: 300 credits (med, law)
- PhD – 180 credits, 3+ years
Compulsory general changeover started in 2006. This
burdened HHE and HAC enormously in recent years.
Dr. univ. has a long tradition in Hungary. The present
PhD form exists since 1993 at universities.
Actors and factors in (Hungarian) HE Quality
a) Government: HE Q policy, legal and financial conds.
b) HAC:
external Q Evaluation and Accreditation
c) HEIs:
key performers in quality of the „product”,
responsible for internal Q Assurance
d) Faculty: determines Q of teaching and research
e) Students: accept and reflect to Q of teaching
f) Labor market: confirms/questions Q of HE
graduates
g) Media: reports Q and prepares HE ranking
h) Europe: Bologna, EHEA, ESG, ENQA: public Q
+ international Q labels + US NCFMEA
a) Government (Minister):
•
•
•
•
QA and accreditation is part of state HE policy
Hungary signed Bologna declaration
QUALITY AWARD for HEI QA activity
After strong expansion (fourfold increase in student
number in a decade) the main focus now: quality!
Impact
 Hungarian HE community accepts the need and
benefit of QA and accreditation.
 HEIs run QA systems and processes ordered by law.
 State financing is not connected to QA and Accred.
 Quality issue in general is now a common concern
of the society.
a) Government (Minister):
•
•
•
•
QA and accreditation is part of state HE policy.
Hungary signed Bologna declaration
QUALITY AWARD for HEI QA activity
After strong expansion (fourfold increase in student
number in a decade) the main issue is now: quality!
Impact
 Hungarian HE community accepts the need and
benefit of QA and accreditation.
 HEIs run QA systems and processes ordered by law.
 State financing is not connected to QA and Accred.
 Quality issue in general is now a common concern of
the society.
b) HAC1
• Independent, mainly academic board, funded by
Parliament (stakeholders spots).
• 19 members (formally appointed by PM), majority
delegated by Rector’s Conference and HAS; secretly
elected president, committees, for 3+3 years.
• Its resolutions are „expert opinions”, legal decisions
become effective through minister(ial organs).
• There is an independent HAC appeal board.
• HAC is a European QA player, charter member of
ENQA (European Association for QA in HE), its
membership affirmed twice by external reviews.
• HAC accepted and applies ESG in all respects.
b) HAC1
• Independent, mainly academic board, funded by
Parliament (stakeholders spots).
• 12 members (formally appointed by PM), 6 delegated by the minister, 3 HRC, 2 HAS, 1 NCD; president selected by the minister, committees, for 6+6
years.
• „Expert opinions” requested by the minister,
decisions will be effective through ministerial organ.
• There is an independent HAC appeal board.
• HAC is a European QA player, charter member of
ENQA (European Association for QA in HE), its
membership affirmed twice with external reviews.
• HAC accepted and applies ESG in all respects.
HAC2
• HAC is the only accreditation body in Hungarian HE,
all HEIs have to apply to HAC for external QA and
accreditation.
• HAC has a permanent secretariat (8 + 7 staff)
• a database of ~1200 experts (acutally trained)
• HAC introduced HE EXCELLENCE AWARDS
• HAC has functions in external and in internal QA.
• HAC sets public conditions and quality norms in
evaluation and accreditation.
• HAC activity and decisions are public:
http://www.mab.hu
HAC2
• HAC is the only accreditation body in Hungarian HE,
all HEIs have to apply for external QA and
accreditation in different affairs.
• HAC has a permanent secretariat (8 + 7)
• a database of ~ 1200 experts (actually trained)
• HAC introduced HE EXCELLENCE AWARDS
• HAC has functions in external and in internal QA.
• HAC sets public conditions and quality norms in
evaluation and accreditation.
• HAC activity and decisions are public:
http://www.mab.hu
HAC3
• HAC is strengthening its international relations and
actions in QA activity permanently with different
actions and co-operations. HAC has an active
International Advisory Board.
• HAC has to move from evaluation of inputs to
outputs. (Note! Filtering out a program at start is
less painful than exclusion during the process.)
• HAC wishes that institutions show their values and
results at accreditation instead of fearing a critical
evaluation. More self-esteem is needed, if it’s well
founded!
• HAC has its own Self-Assessment mechanisms.
• HAC needs to increase its publicity.
HAC3
• HAC is strengthening its international relations and
actions in QA activity permanently with different
actions and co-operations. HAC has an active
International Advisory Board.
• HAC has to move from input to output evaluation.
(Note! Filtering out a program at input is less
painful than exclusion during the process.)
• HAC wishes that institutions show their values and
results at accreditation instead of fearing a critical
evaluation. More self-esteem is needed, if it’s well
founded!
• HAC has its own Self-Assessment mechanism.
• HAC has to increase its publicity.
System of HAC activities (external QA)
at input (ex ante)
– HEI is charged
During process & at output
(ex post) – free of charge
establishing
HEIs/faculties
Accred. of operating HEI,
including QA system (/5 y)
establishing
B and M programs
---
launching
B and M programs
parallel programs’ evaluation
setting up
doctoral (PhD) schools
doctoral schools’ evaluation
professors’ appointment ---
System of HAC activities (external QA)
at input (ex ante)
– HEI is charged
During process & at output
(ex post) – free of charge
establishing
HEIs/faculties
Accred. of operating HEI,
including QA system (/5 y)
establishing
B and M programs
---
launching
B and M programs
parallel programs’ evaluation
setting up
doctoral (PhD) schools
doctoral schools’ evaluation
professors’ appointment ---
HAC past activities in figures
Average
approved
Task for HAC
cases/year
/total
establishment of HEI/faculty
2–4
--accred. of operating HEI
8 – 15
--establishment of Bachelor pr.
4–6
141/163
launching Bachelor programs 80 – 100 ~800/1100
establishment of Master pr.
50 – 60
~350/450
launching Master programs
300 – 400 ~550/750
parallel accred. of B/M progr.
30 – 80
--accreditation of PhD schools
2–3
10 + 170*
opinion for professors’ appt
120 – 140 yes: 90–100
Processes (standards are published in advance):
Ex ante accreditations (input conditions): in 90 days
 written proposal submitted
 2 HAC expert reviews (anonymous) →
 disciplinary committees’ proposal (15 members) →
 resolution of HAC plenum
Ex post accreditation (during operation): in 1 year
 self-evaluation report (including C-SWOT) →
 site visit by a visiting team (HAC experts, incl.
student, stakeholder, QA specialist) →
 draft of the accr. report of the visiting team →
 comments from the HEI →
 resolution of HAC plenum
A unique system: parallel accreditation of all doctoral
schools (PhD programs) in Hungary.
 a full, live, open access electronic database, covering all 26 universities +1 college: www.doktori.hu.
(Information for students!)
 ex ante and ex post evaluation of ~200 doctoral
schools, the 3rd cycle of Bologna system, including
- documents of functions, teaching and research
plans, coherency, programs of QA,
- websites,
- ~ 2200 core members evaluated individually by
qualification, performance and relevance to the
respective school.
This mirrors the quality of scientific output of HEI.
Impact of HAC on HEIs
 HEIs consider the quality norms and consequences
of external evaluation in all issues : applications are
often prepared carefully; exceptions ~25%.
 HAC conditions and norms are the same for all –
state and non-state (but state recognized) – HEIs.
 HAC has high quality norms in order to
compensate the expansive ambitions of HEIs (state
financing follows student number, not quality).
 HAC evaluations result in requests and advice for
QA systems and management of HEIs.
 HAC as a strong quality safeguard reduces the
responsibility of HEIs: HAC whishes to change it!
c) HEI quality management1 – 2 documents
 HE Act: „The HEI operates an internal QA system.
The HEI prepares a quality development program.
• It specifies the process of operation, like the execution of management, planning, control,
measurement, assessment, and consumer protection
related tasks
• regulates the rules pertaining to the evaluation of
lecturer performance by the students.
• The HEI annually revises the implementation of the
program and
• publishes its findings on the website.”
 QA systems are developed, programs start formally.
c) HEI quality management1 – 2 documents
 HE Act: „The HEI operates an internal QA system.
The HEI prepares a quality development program.
• It specifies the process of operation, like the execution of management, planning, control,
measurement,
assessment, and consumer protection related tasks,
• regulates the rules pertaining to the evaluation of
lecturer performance by the students.
• The HEI annually revises the implementation of the
program and
• publishes its findings on the website.”
 QA systems are developed, programs start formally.
HEA’s question:
• Secretariat manages (organizes) the process of
accreditation (logistics, printed and e-reports, visits).
• HAC secretariat has 15 permanent members (8
professional and 7 administrative).
• Independent expert members of the visiting panels
are selected by HAC plenum from a large database.
• Reports are written by the visiting panel.
• HAC delivers draft of the reports to the HEI on
comments before accepting the final version.
• Compulsory accreditation is financed by the state in
the HAC’s budget
• Evaluation of HEI’s proposal is financed by the HEI
(fee is set by the government).
• HAC has web-published criteria as a base for
accreditation of all courses and programs.
• Average period for one institutional and parallel
program accreditation is about one year.
• HAC conducts accreditation of the third cycle;
e-databese: www.doktori.hu
QA vs. QP:
QA isn’t an art for art sake:
the main aim of QA is good Quality Product:
- high class graduates,
- excellent science and innovation,
- efficient local/social services.
Thank you for the invitation and
for your kind attention!