Maria João Rosa

Institutional Consequences of Quality Assessment

Abstract This paper analyses the opinions of Portuguese university rectors and academics on the quality assessment system and its consequences at the institutional level. The results obtained show that university staff (rectors and academics, with more of the former than the latter) held optimistic views of the positive consequences of quality assessment for institutions. However, while rectors paid more attention to the results, coordinators were more centred on processes. Moreover, the institutional leadership paid more attention to internal procedures and services, strategic management and institutional management structures than to actual improvements in the student learning experience.

Cost-sharing and accessibility in higher education: A fairer deal?

Strengthening Consumer Choice in Higher Education.- Cost-sharing and the Cost-effectiveness of Grants and Loan Subsidies to Higher Education.- Income Related Student Loans: Concepts, International Reforms and Administrative Challenges.- Access to Higher Education in Britain: The Impact of Tuition Fees and Financial Assistance.- The Changing Nature of Public Support for Higher Education in the United States.- The Canadian Experiment in Cost-sharing and its Effects on Access to Higher Education, 1990-2002.- Student and University Funding in Devolved Governments in the United Kingdom.- Student Financing in the Netherlands: A Behavioural Economic Perspective.- A Broader Church? Expansion, Access and Cost-sharing in Portuguese Higher Education.- The German Tuition Fee Debate: Goals, Models and Political Implications of Cost-sharing.- Accessibility and Equity in a State-funded System of Higher Education: The French Case.- Access to Higher Education Within a Welfare State System: Developments and Dilemmas.- Conclusion.

Funding systems for higher education and their impacts on institutional strategies and academia: A comparative perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss how funding systems influence higher education institutions and their strategies and core tasks.Design/methodology/approach – Taking the results of a comparative study between Denmark, Norway and Portugal as a point of departure, the paper identifies and analyses the main features of these state funding systems, their strengths and weaknesses, and their impact on academia.Findings – The system‐level analysis offers an illustration of a trend across Europe. The paper shows that mixed funding models have been implemented in all three countries.Originality/value – Funding systems and their impacts do not come in neat packages. The systems demonstrate a mixed pattern of strengths and weaknesses. The impacts of the funding systems converge, although different mechanisms are employed. There are no clear cut differences in the perceived strengths, weaknesses and impacts of the two main types of funding systems – input‐based funding and output‐based funding – pres...

Recent Trends in Quality Assurance

ABSTRACT In this paper we present a brief description of the evolution of quality assurance in Europe, paying particular attention to its relationship to the rising loss of trust in higher education institutions. We finalise by analysing the role of the European Commission in the setting up of new quality assurance mechanisms that tend to promote accreditation and stratification rather than quality enhancement.

Excellence in Portuguese higher education institutions

Based upon an empirical study made with the goal of getting a better understanding of Portuguese higher education institutions--in particular, regarding strategic and quality management, innovation practices and tools being adopted--and on the study of several quality assessment models developed both for higher education institutions (CNAVES, 2000a, 2000b, CNE, 2001; CRE, 2000) and organizations in general (EFQM, 1999a; Kanji, 1998), we have developed an excellence model for the Portuguese higher education institutions, based upon nine criteria (Rosa et al. , 2001). It was intended that the relationships between the different model criteria could be empirically tested. Therefore, after having clearly defined each of the models nine criteria and the areas to address within each of them, we tried to validate the model underlying the structure through a questionnaire aimed at assessing how each Portuguese higher education institution is dealing with a series of practices and factors considered to be critical for its quality improvement. In this paper we will present the main results obtained, through a detailed statistical analysis. Structural equation modelling is used to validate the proposed excellence model structure and relationships among its nine underlying criteria through PLS (Partial Least Squares) estimation techniques.

Implementing Quality Management Systems in Higher Education Institutions

In the last decades, several factors have contributed to raising public concern over higher education institutions’ quality, leading to the emergence of quality measurement and improvement devices such as performance indicators, accreditation, programme and institutional assessment and quality audits, and there have been attempts to import models from the private sector into higher education systems and institutions (Sarrico, Rosa, Teixeira and Cardoso, 2010). This has led to the emergence of a debate on the applicability of quality management principles, methodologies and tools to the higher education sector. As reported in the literature on higher education, several voices have been heard about the non-applicability at all of those management theories, especially because they derived from industry and had nothing to do with the higher education ethos (Harvey, 1995; Maassy, 2003; Birnbaum, 2000; Kells, 1995; Pratasavitskaya and Stensaker, 2010). Other authors gave a more nuanced view on the subject, claiming that although higher education institutions were not companies some of the basic principles and tools could be applied as long as they were instruments at the service of institutions and their governance and management boards, subject to the institutions academic mission, goals and strategies (Williams, 1993; Harvey, 1995; Dill, 1995). Although the debate is old, no firm conclusions have been reached so far. It seems, nevertheless, that in Europe, due to the developments on quality assurance that followed the Bologna Declaration, higher education institutions are now being “forced” to implement internal quality assurance systems based on the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG). Apparently the way these systems should be organised and function is not that specified, apart from the need to comply with the seven standards established in the ESG Part I, being up to each institution to define and implement its own quality assurance system in accordance with its mission, goals and institutional culture (Santos, 2011). So maybe this is the time to look again at quality management principles, tools and frameworks and see if they can be of some help to the development of these quality assurance – or management – systems.

Academics’ perceptions on the purposes of quality assessment

The accountability versus improvement debate is an old one. Although being traditionally considered dichotomous purposes of higher education quality assessment, some authors defend the need of balancing both in quality assessment systems. This article goes a step further and contends that not only they should be balanced but also that other purposes can be devised for assessing quality in higher education. Five different purposes are proposed: communication, motivation, control, improvement and innovation, derived both from the higher education and the organisational performance literatures. Then the answers given to a set of questions related to these five intended purposes are analysed. The answers were collected through a questionnaire designed to investigate Portuguese academics’ perceptions on higher education quality assessment. Overall the analysis performed reveals a certain degree of support for all the purposes, albeit higher in the case of the improvement and communication purposes and lower for control and motivation. Since an adequate implementation of quality assessment systems needs the support of academics, this article can inform the design of systems integrating academics’ views on the subject.

The EUA Institutional Evaluation Programme: an account of institutional best practices

When evaluating the EUA Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP), Nilsson et al. emphasised the interest in creating a data bank on good practices derived from its reports that would contribute to disseminating examples of effective quality management practices and to supporting mutual learning among universities. In IEP, evaluated institutions present a SWOT analysis that is examined by the external reviewers. This article identifies and systematises the strengths identified by external evaluators, related to good management practices, which may contribute to the data bank. The paper also suggests that the IEP reports present a set of strengths that define a certain type of university, namely a centralised institution, with strong leadership, well-defined strategic management practices, capacity to change and an institutional identity and culture promoting its worldwide competitiveness. Along with other prioritised characteristics the IEP process potentially contributes to convergence towards a more uniform European higher education model. The analysis of the strengths identified by reviewers does not show a significant regional influence.

Student satisfaction with Portuguese higher education institutions: the view of different types of students

The purpose of this paper is to discuss student satisfaction with Portuguese higher education institutions, and to analyse how this varies for different types of students. A survey instrument was used to collect data on students’ perceptions and expectations regarding different aspects of service provision. Based on the gap model of satisfaction, satisfaction indices were calculated for all items considered and were checked for their statistical significance. Although, genetically speaking, students’ perceptions and expectations are high, the satisfaction indices are all negative and statistically different from zero. Furthermore, significant differences of satisfaction regarding some aspects of service provision were found between different groups of students. This study may contribute to institutions improving the quality of services they provide. Furthermore, this study will contribute to improving the quality of higher education institutions through correcting mistakes and designing better processes, provided that the information collected through student satisfaction surveys has been treated adequately.

Quality, Evaluation and Accreditation: from Steering, Through Compliance, on to Enhancement and Innovation?

The chapter analyses the evolution of quality mechanisms in Portuguese higher education (HE). The first section reviews the legislative intent behind the ‘quality’ agenda. The second section covers the years 1994–2005. It examines two phases in the move to evaluate HE at first degree level, which ended however with the initiative being abruptly terminated. The third section examines recent developments from 2006 to the present. This third phase saw the publication of two reports: an OECD review of Portuguese HE (OECD, Reviews of national policies for education: tertiary education in Portugal, OECD, Paris, 2007) and another on quality assurance (ENQA, ENQA occasional paper 10, ENQA, Helsinki 2006), which coincided with closing down of the previous evaluation system. Major changes in the interests represented were introduced. Previously, the evaluation system lay in the hands of groups representing institutions of HE. Its successor, which included accreditation, was vested in an independent agency, with both government and higher education representatives. The fourth section muses on the possible outcomes the new evaluative regime may engender. Will its influence be more positive? Or will it, on the contrary, become inquisitorial?