Institutional Tendencies of Legitimate Evaluation: A Comparison of Finnish and English Higher Education Evaluations

This article analyses institutional evaluations of higher education in England and Finland through the concept of legitimacy. The focus of the article is on the institutional tendencies of legitimacy. This author's hypothesis is that evaluation is legitimate when the evaluation process is of a good quality and accepted both morally and in practice by people involved in the process. The central question is: What are the institutional tendencies of modern higher education evaluation? The article deliberates the many‐sided elements of legitimate evaluation and ends with conclusions that show the similarities and differences of institutional tendencies of higher education evaluation in the studied countries.