Transcript 1. dia - unideb.hu

CUBRIK Workshop IV
Beograd,
13 March, 2012
QUALITY ASSURANCE
some subjective remarks
Prof. György BAZSA,
former president
Hungarian Accreditation Committee (HAC)
Messages of the presentation
 QA is a general social must in the competitive word
of the 21th century
 QA is not a l’art pour l’art entertainment, it is an
outcomes oriented never ending permanent activity
 QA is the primary interest and primary responsibility
of higher education institutions (HEIs)
 QA is the task of the full HEI from top to bottom
 The interest and information of the broad public
should be served in all respects
 QA should developed into a quality culture at
personal, institutional and (inter)national level
Glossary
 quality assurance: sum of regulations, structures,
processes and outcomes for improving quality
 evaluation: (of subject, programme or institution) a
well defined process carried out internal (selfevaluation) or external (by QA agencies)
 accreditation: (independent) professional evaluation
with yes/no judgement – for a fixed period
 licensing: giving permission of … by a state authority
 audit: evaluation of strengths and weaknesses
 quality label (of excellence) in different fields and
activity (Euro-Inf, Euro-Ingeneur, Euro-Chem, etc.)
http://www.qualityresearchinternational.com/glossary/
Why accreditation?
 First half of 20th century in US: a university initiative
for protection of good reputation and degrees of
excellent HE institutions against low level education
and degrees (against „diploma mills”).
 Second half of 20th century: increasing importance
of quality, therefore developing systematic quality
assurance systems (models) and quality culture.
 In higher education: to ensure and improve quality
of education and training in interest of all
stakeholders (students, labour market, government).
 For (the knowledge based) society: declaring safeguarded and evaluated quality of programs and/or
HE institutions, transparency, informing the public.
USA (Council for Higher Education Accreditation, CHEA)
Accreditation in the US is about quality assurance and
quality improvement.
The federal government relies on accreditation to
assure the quality of institutions and programs for which
it provides federal funds and aid to students.
Accreditation is the primary means by which colleges,
universities and programs assure quality to students
and the public.
Accreditation status of an institution or program is
important to employers when evaluating credentials of
job applicants (in a competitive world).
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CHEA: Council for Higher Education Accreditation →
United States
A national advocate and institutional voice for selfregulation of academic quality through
accreditation, CHEA is an association of 3,000
degree-granting colleges and universities and
recognizes 60 institutional and programmatic
accrediting organizations.
It is a bottom up and state-independent system.
+ Accreditation of non-United States institutions and
programs →
National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and
Accreditation (NCFMEA)
The Purpose of NCFMEA is to review the standards used
by foreign countries to accredit medical schools and
determine whether those standards are comparable to
standards used to accredit medical schools in the
United States.
The NCFMEA does not review or accredit individual
foreign medical schools. The NCFMEA only reviews the
standards that a foreign country uses to accredit its
medical schools. The request by a foreign country for
review by the NCFMEA is voluntary.
This is a so called meta-accreditation.
Great Britain (audit):
The Quality Assurance Agency for HE (QAA) is
• to safeguard the public interest in sound standards of
HE qualifications,
• to provide public information about the maintenance of
academic standards and assurance of quality of
learning opportunities provided for students,
• to enhance the quality of educational provision,
particularly by building on information gained through
monitoring, internal and external reviews, and feedback from stakeholders.
The American-English universities are society oriented!
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Europe (continental)
The European university was during centuries an
institution of excellent quality based on invited
professors and on selected students.
In the 20th century the mass education appeared in
Europe which required standardisation, professional
evaluation and publicity of quality, i. e. accreditation.
This was and is mainly top down organised. States
have stronger or weaker influence.
The Bologna process, ENQA, ESG, EQAR are products
and catalysts of quality (assurance) – and tools of
transfer from chaotic diversity to harmonised diversity.
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EUA: key principles of university quality assurance
i. Primary responsibility for quality assurance lies with
universities themselves. The role of external quality
evaluation is to review internal processes while respecting and promoting the primary responsibility of HEIs.
ii. Institutional quality management requires a
comprehensive, all-encompassing approach. This
covers all activities of a university: research, teaching
and learning, service to society and support services.
Quality management should be derived from the
mission statement and strategic goals of each institution
and constitutes a fundamental part of an overarching
institutional quality culture that aims at continuous
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enhancement of the quality.
iii. Quality is contextual. The diversity of institutional
missions and profiles, as well as of national contexts
and traditions, including national quality assurance
procedures.
iv. The ultimate goal of all quality assurance – both
internal and external – is to enhance quality thus
promoting trust among stakeholders. Regardless of how
quality is defined, the ultimate aim of all quality
assurance processes – whether they are internal or
external and related to research, teaching and learning
or other activities – is to enhance quality.
Europe: good balance between internal academic
values and external society needs
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ENQA (2000): European (Network) Association for
Quality Assurance in Higher Education
„ENQA considers the autonomy of institutions and
independence of quality assurance agencies
within national HE systems as a necessary condition
to ensure the full exercise of their responsibilities,
notably with regard to the provision of accurate and
consistent information to the general public.”
Recently in Europe the governments tend to increase
their influence on accreditation although they have
the right of licensing.
European University Association:
Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP)
http://www.eua.be/iep/Home.aspx
• What is the institution trying to do?
→ mission
• How is the institution trying to do it?
→ implementation policies
• How does it know it works?
→ self evaluation
• How does the institution change in order to improve?
→ strategic planning
It’s an audit type evaluation with no legal consequences
but valuable proposals of an international team.
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Hungary:
Act CCIV 2011 70. § (1) The Hungarian Accreditation
Committee is a national expert body promoting the
supervision, assurance, and evaluation of the quality of
higher education, scientific research, and the scientific
quality of artistic creation, which participates under this
Act in procedures relating to higher education
institutions, with special regard to doctorate schools.
There is nothing in the law about the interest of the
public, stakeholders and society.
(HAC makes all its opinions public.)
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Actors and factors in HE Quality
(different missions, functions, rights, duties, effects
…)
a) Government: HE Q policy, legal framework, licencing
– HEI provider: ensuring financial conditions
b) QA agency: external Q Evaluation and Accreditation
(ESG 2) – with advices, requests for development
c) HEIs: key performers in quality of the „products”,
responsible for internal Q Assurance (ESG 1)
d) Faculty: determines Q of teaching and research
e) Students: accept and reflect to Q of teaching
f) Labour market: confirms/questions Q of HE
graduates
a) Governments (Minister):
• QA and accreditation is part of state HE policy – if!
• Legal framework of QA (structures, standards etc.)
• Signature of Bologna declaration and ESG
Impact
 HE community accepts the need and benefit of QA
and accreditation.
 HEIs run QA system and process ordered by law – if!
 State financing is or isn’t not connected to QA and
accreditation?
 Quality is independent of HEI provider (state,
church, private, foundations etc.)
b) QA agencies
ESG – Part 2: European standards for the external
quality assurance of higher education
2.1 Use of internal quality assurance procedures
2.2 Development of external QA processes
2.3 Criteria for decisions
2.4 Processes fit for purpose
2.5 Reporting
2.6 Follow-up procedures
2.7 Periodic reviews
2.8 System-wide analyses
c) HEI
ESG - Part 1: European standards and guidelines for
internal quality assurance within higher education
institutions
1.1 Policy and procedures for quality assurance
1.2 Approval, monitoring and periodic review of
programs and awards
1.3 Assessment of students
1.4 Quality assurance of teaching staff
1.5 Learning resources and student support
1.6 Information systems
1.7 Public information
EDUCATION COMMITTEE
QUALITY ASSURANCE
HANDBOOK
• Course design, approval, monitoring and review
• Student feedback
• Student complaints and appeals
• External input
• Quality enhancement in learning and teaching
• Monitoring of teaching
http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/epsc/handbook/
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http://www.sefi.be/wp-content/abstracts2009/Andersson.pdf
~1 year
~5 years
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d) Faculty:
 In most cases selected on meritocracy principle vs.
HHE salary conditions.
 Quality based mentality dominates, organized QA
is slowly accepted. Formal and alibi Q actions hurt.
 Realizes: Q is a winning factor in all competitions.
• Student evaluation of teaching is in progress, its
ces are still moderate.
• Methods of earlier elite education must be
replaced by mass education procedures.
• Student centered learning gradually replaces
knowledge based teaching.
OXFORD LEARNING INSTITUTE
in
Postgraduate Diploma
Learning and Teaching
in Higher Education
A part-time professional degree programme for
acade- mics teaching in higher education. A primary
aim of the course is to enhance teaching, course
design and the learning environment at Oxford.
[Since 1999 > 120, mainly Oxford graduates.]
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e) Students:
 Quality, in principle, is their strong interest.
• Quality of teaching can be achieved only with their
active participation.
• At mass education students’ motivation,
participation and quality varies on a broad scale:
from excellent performance to leisure school-days.
• Empowering required: students should influence
their own transformation
• Credits (ECTS) are used and misused
• Student associations in most cases are partners in
QA actions.
f) Stakeholders (employers, labor market):
 They demand general skills, like being motivated,
team working, critical thinking, management and IT
skills, foreign languages, ready learn to adopt etc.
• Labour market moderately acknowledges Q of
individual degrees, Q of HEI has bigger influence.
• Reputation of HEI and salaries (incomes) strongly
influence pupils interest in choosing study
programs.
 Increasing recognition of HE excellence from
private sector (awards, scholarships) stimulates Q in
society
g) Media:
• Shows reasonable balances between good news
(Q, excellence) and bad news (scandals).
• Ranking is now flourishing in domestic and
international scale.
• Every HEI likes to find and does find good ranking
position to glaze and advertise itself.
• Ranking, despite distortions, have more popular
appeal than the accurate hard work of quality
agencies.
HEIs and QAAs should take more care!
h) Europe
 QA is probably the most successful field of the
Bologna process.
 ESG effects positively national QA policies and
practices.
 ENQA membership has significant importance.
 EQAR list has more formal importance.
 Both are preventing possible „accreditation mills”.
QA vs. qp:
QA isn’t an art for art sake:
the main aim of Quality Assurance 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!