QUALITY ASSURANCE AND INSTITUTIONAL ACCREDITATION: FRENCH PROCEDURES AND OPERATIONAL ASPECTS

An aperçu of the French National Evaluation Committee is given. Its recent history, its functions, and its aims are evoked. The stages of an evaluation and the procedures for each stage are outlined. The aim is to help each institution and each targeted discipline to better understand itself and its future so as to fill its niche more fully and effectively.     

OPERATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS IN QUALITY ASSESSMENT AND INSTITUTIONAL ACCREDITATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

The Accreditation Commission of Slovakia was created in 1990, six months after passage of the Higher Education Law. The accreditation procedure stresses decentralization and participation at all levels; however, it leads to major decisions concerning the disapproval or approval of given faculties and appointments to professorships. Institutions as a whole are still not subjected to accreditation procedures. The Accreditation Commission has gained wide acceptance. Its judgments can be expected to influence the financing of given faculties and programmes in the future.     

QUALITY ASSURANCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A GLOBAL TOUR OF PRACTICE AND RESOURCES

This article discusses the role of quality assurance in higher education on an international scale and outlines the resources available to countries in developing them, including international networks, conferences, and service organizations. Case studies reflecting experience in selected countries throughout the world are cited.     

INTERNATIONALIZATION: A CHANCE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

After a brief evocation of the world crisis that higher education is facing, the author proposes several remedies based on international academic co‐operation. One of these is the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme of which he was the first administrator after its inauguration in 1991. While often viewed as a form of North‐South co‐operation, many UNESCO Chairs have also been set up in eastern and central Europe, several of which are described. Funding for UNESCO Chairs comes from a diversity of sources, UNESCO serving as the catalyst and sometimes as the middleman. UNESCO will sometimes also provide seed money. The Programme has proven to be an excellent, cost‐effective form of academic solidarity. Several suggestions for the improvement and expansion of the Programme are given.     

OVERVIEW OF THE INTERNATIONAL HIGH‐LEVEL CONSULTATION ON POLICY ISSUES OF QUALITY ASSESSMENT AND INSTITUTIONAL ACCREDITATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION

This consultation, which lasted three days (5‐7 May 1993), featured discussions among high‐ranking eastern and central European officials responsible for higher education, UNESCO staff members, and invited experts. The discussions were organized under the following rubrics: Quality Assessment in Higher Education: Issues and Concerns; Institutional Self‐Evaluation and External Quality Assessment; Policy Implications of Quality Management in Higher Education; National Evaluation Bodies; the Role and Functions of an International Body, sponsored by CEPES‐UNESCO, currently being formed: the European Group on Academic Assessment; and Quality Assessment and Institutional Accreditation.     

WHICH ROLE FOR PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION? FOCUS ON QUALITY ASSURANCE IN ITALY

This article explores the role of voluntary quality assessments in higher education, underscoring their main features and potentialities, and showing that basic principles and guidelines can be customised in different countries or single institutions. The article extensively presents an assessment project developed at the University of Siena, the first integrated assessment of teaching and research quality of a whole university carried out in Italy. The article clearly highlights the relevance of quality assurance and performance measurement systems and the behavioural and organisational impacts they may have.     

PROLEGOMENA TO ACCREDITATION IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

Beginning with an overview of various international initiatives which have been taken in recent years with regard to exchanges of information and experiences on quality assessment in higher education, this article reflects on the adoption of quality assessment techniques and accreditation in the higher education systems of eastern and central Europe. The principles of Total Quality Management (TQM), self‐evaluation, the structures of formal accreditation, and methodological issues of quality assurance are discussed, examples being drawn from several countries. The point is made that the countries of central and eastern Europe must individualize the evaluation and accreditation systems which they choose to adopt in ways which are compatible with specific cultural and national factors while at the same time upholding international norms of quality.     

高等教育质量保证的国际趋势与中国的选择

本文在简要阐述有关高等教育质量保证概念的基础上,从质量保证的主体、目的、对象、指标或标准以及实施层面等五个方面入手,对近年来美、英、欧盟主要国家以及日本的变化趋势和特点进行考察,并对如何构建具有中国特色的高等教育质量保证体系提出几点建议。     

SHORT OVERVIEW OF CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS IN LITHUANIA IN THE DOMAIN OF QUALITY ASSURANCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND RECOGNITION OF HIGHER EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS

This article describes current developments in regard to quality assurance and the recognition of higher education qualifications in Lithuania. With the aim of internationalizing its higher education system, Lithuania acceded to the UNESCO European Diploma Convention in 1994 and to the Council of Europe Convention on the Equivalence of Diplomas Leading to Admission to Universities in 1996. The Ministry of Education created the Lithuanian Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education in January 1995. It has been very active in a number of directions since then. In addition, Lithuania has subjected its science to international evaluation, is a partner in the Baltic Higher Education Coordination Committee, and is participating in two PHARE projects for the development of co‐operation in higher education. The main obstacle to greater co‐operation in regard both to the recognition of academic qualifications and to quality assurance is lack of financial resources.     

ADMINISTRATIVE INTENSITY AND INSTITUTIONAL CONTROL IN HIGHER EDUCATION

This paper formulates a model to partition theobserved administrative/faculty ratio (or administrativeintensity) for higher education institutions into twocomponents. One component uses internal factors. The second component acts as an augmenter anduses external factors. In particular, it uses sources offunding dependency to explain additionally the demandfor administrative resources. A logit analysis is used to link the type of institutionalcontrol to sources of funding dependency. The mainresults indicate that public institutions use relativelyless administrative resources compared to privates in seeking public and private sources of funding.Privates, on the other hand, use relatively less whenseeking private funding, but they use relatively morewhen seeking public funding. Policy implications relate to barriers of entry to the fundingsources.     

高等教育制度变迁中的制度创立者、机遇和预见

本文利用美国和德国高等教育制度变迁的历史比较数据,试图对导致制度变迁的三类因素的普遍性和运行机制进行评价。这些因素是:机遇(或外因)、内因以及理性的人类预见。其中理性预见是引起制度变迁的因素当中最少出现的,笔者例举了制度创立者和政府对制度变迁的干预来加以说明,并讨论了这些干预的相对效果。     

WESTERN ASSISTANCE TO HIGHER EDUCATION IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE: THE NEED FOR AN ASSESSMENT

This article introduces the topic of this issue of the review. Because there has been no systematic evaluation, so far, of the impact of western assistance programmes for higher education in eastern and central Europe since they got underway in 1989‐1990, the hope is that this publication will kick off the necessary debate. In general, two stages in the reform process can be identified, a reparatory stage that lasted around three years, and now a holistic stage, that emphasizes a systemic approach to reform. It is hoped that the eight articles making up the topic will serve as catalysts for many more studies on all aspects of this vast problem.     

QUALITY ASSESSMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION: ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Although quality in higher education is hard to define and to identify, there is growing concern about it at national and international levels. The work of CEPES, particularly its proposal to create a European Group on Academic Assessment (EGAA), and the work of OECD, particularly its Institutional Management in Higher Education Programme (IMHE), respond to this concern. Approaches to quality assessment in the United States, Japan, and Sweden are evoked.     

EVALUATING THE TEMPUS PROGRAMME: SUCCESSES AND PROBLEMS OF HIGHER EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE 1

An account of the results of a TEMPUS evaluation is given. It reflects the experiences of the evaluators in the course of their work. While the TEMPUS Programme can be characterized as being very successful, the evaluation nevertheless unearthed a number of problems. The pure numbers and facts presented for the quantitative and structural development of higher education in central and eastern Europe are quite impressive. They are set against an assessment of the quality of cooperation between central and eastern European partners and western partners and of the relations between the institutional, the national, and the supranational levels of higher education development. The account is framed by a critical reflection of the role of western experts and evaluators in central and eastern Europe.

     

STATE OF IMPLEMENTATION OF QUALITY ASSURANCE MECHANISMS IN THE SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN LITHUANIA

The first laws for regulating qualification requirements in Lithuanian higher education were passed by the Lithuanian government in 1991. Other laws providing for the nostrification of foreign degrees, awarded under the authority of the former Soviet State, were passed. Lithuania is now proceeding towards the development of bodies and procedures for the accreditation of institutions and programmes, this despite public weariness with over‐bureaucratization.     

EUROPEAN PILOT PROJECTS FOR EVALUATING QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION: GUIDELINES FOR PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS

The need for quality assessment in higher education, particularly in the European Union countries is explained. Four main systems of evaluation having many elements in common but also many differences have emerged in four of the European Union countries. The purpose of the pilot projects described is to reinforce cooperation among existing national evaluation agencies and to disperse and disseminate these methods to the other European Union countries so as to enhance awareness of the need for quality assessment and evaluation in higher education, impart a European dimension to quality assessment and evaluation, enrich national quality assessment procedures, and contribute to the improvement of the basis and the procedures for academic mobility and recognition. The procedures for setting up and conducting pilot evaluation projects in selected higher education institutions in the European Union countries over a period running from November 1994 to December 1995 are detailed.

     

CHANGING POLICIES AND DILEMMAS IN HIGHER EDUCATION FINANCE: THE HUNGARIAN SITUATION AS COMPARED TO THAT OF OTHER EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Political change and declining economies have forced the higher education systems of the countries of east and central Europe to undergo restructuring, in particular to develop new financing mechanisms and to permit the emergence of private higher education. The Hungarian experience is described with reference to the situations in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Reference is made to the “base and addition” model of higher education finance as it evolved in eastern Europe beginning in the 1950's. This model went into crisis in the 1980's because it failed to encourage institutions to search for sources of funding other than government grants. In the post‐Communist situation, new types of funding mechanisms are being explored in the three countries. Czechoslovakia has so far made the fewest fundamental changes because of the relative strength of its economy. Poland has adopted a policy of professional co‐ordination for academic survival. Hungary is experimenting with professional and market co‐ordination.