Drivers and Barriers to Achieving Quality in Higher Education

187 Pages·2014·1.609 MB·English

by  Heather Eggins (eds.)

Drivers and Barriers to Achieving Quality
in Higher Education

Drivers and Barriers to Achieving Quality
in Higher Education
Edited by
Heather Eggins
Durham University, UK
A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-94-6209-492-5 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-94-6209-493-2 (hardback)
ISBN: 978-94-6209-494-9 (e-book)
Published by: Sense Publishers,
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The Netherlands
https://www.sensepublishers.com/
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot
be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained
therein.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgements vii
Foreword ix
1. Implementation and Translation: From European Standards and
Guidelines for Quality Assurance to Education Quality Work in
Higher Education Institutions 1
Don F. Westerheijden & Jan Kohoutek
2. Policy Drivers and Barriers to Implementation: Contexts of Practice 13
Ray Land & Julie Rattray
3. Questions of Access 27
Heather Eggins
4. Academic Values and the Procedures of Quality Assurance 43
Ewa Chmielecka
5. Two Approaches to Quality Assurance: The ESG and Quality
Management Concepts 55
Jakub Brdulak
6. Changes in Governance: Do They Help Overcome Barriers to the
Implementation of the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality
Assurance in Higher Education? 67
Amélia Veiga & Cláudia S. Sarrico
7. Stakeholders and Quality Assurance in Higher Education 83
Liudvika Leisyte & Don F. Westerheijden
8. Information and Internal Quality Assurance in European and Slovak
Higher Education Institutions 99
Alena Hašková, Ľubica Lachká, Ľubor Pilárik & Julie Rattray
9. Moving up: National Qualifications Frameworks, School-University
Linkages and the Challenge of Transition from Secondary to Tertiary
Education 109
Catherine Owen & George Gordon
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
10. The Czech Case: Students, Governance and the Interface with
Secondary Education 127
Josef Beneš, Vladimír Roskovec & Helena Šebková
11. From Central Regulation to Quality Culture: The Latvian Case 143
A. Prikulis, A. Rusakova & A. Rauhvargers
12. The Portuguese Case: New Public Management Reforms and the
European Standards and Guidelines 153
Maria João Rosa & Alberto Amaral
13. Opening up the Black Box: Drivers and Barriers in Institutional
Implementation of the European Standards and Guidelines 167
Jan Kohoutek & Don F. Westerheijden
Contributors 177
vi
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is an integral part of the major project funded by the EACEA
Programme of the European Commission, on the topic of ‘Identifying Barriers in
Promoting European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance at
Institutional Level’. The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the
European Higher Education Area (ESG) were established in 2005, and are
currently being reviewed. The ESG Part 1 applies to all higher education within
Europe and proffers advice on all aspects of quality assurance. A key factor present
in the Bologna Process, of which this is a part, is the emphasis on the need to
‘translate’ the agreements into the cultures of each country’s higher education
system, while implementing those agreements. The aim of this volume is to
explore aspects of this implementation and translation from a range of different
perspectives, seen through the lens of different countries, different disciplines, and,
where relevant, drawing on international comparisons. Another particular theme is
the exploration of the policy drivers and the barriers to enabling implementation to
properly take place. As such, the book is published in the hope that readers will
find much of general and global interest, in that the topics considered have
universal significance, despite being apparently tied to consideration of a European
Standard.
The book is grounded on the research findings of the three year project (2010–
2013) which has been examining in detail all aspects of quality work in
institutions. Eight work packages have formed the basis of the research: quality
and access, quality and student assessment, quality and management/governance,
quality and stakeholders, quality and teaching staff, quality and information, and
quality and secondary education. The book draws on the findings of all the work
packages, either in terms of a particular issue, or more broadly in the country case
studies. The authors, though, have their own individual approaches to discussing
aspects of the topics they see as significant.
The research interrogated a sample of 28 higher education institutions in seven
countries. The research teams undertaking the work are drawn from the Centre for
Higher Education Studies, Prague, Czech Republic, Durham University, UK,
University of Latvia (Riga), the Centre for Research in Higher Education Policy
(CIPES), Matosinhos, Portugal, Warsaw School of Economics, Poland,
Constantine the Philosopher University, Nitra, Slovakia and the Centre for Higher
Education Policy Studies (CHEPS) University of Twente, Netherlands. At the time
of writing, members of the project team were Helena Šebková, Jan Kohoutek,
Josef Beneš, Ray Land, Heather Eggins, Catherine Owen, George Gordon, Julie
Rattray, Ľubica Ľachká, Alena Hašková, Don Westerheijden, Liudvika Leisyte,
Alberts Prikulis, Agnese Rusakova, Ewa Chmielecka, Jakub Brdulak, Aneta
vii
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Szydłowska, Alberto Amaral, Maria João Pires da Rosa and Cláudia
Sarrico. Further information about the project is available from its website
(http://www.ibar-llp.eu/).
Our chief acknowledgement must be to the European Commission for enabling
this work to be undertaken – reference 511491-LLP-1-2010-1-CZ-KA1-KA1SCR.
We also wish to acknowledge the helpful discussions with other colleagues that all
teams have been able to draw on, and, for Chapter 7, we wish to acknowledge the
contribution of Elisabeth Epping, Marike Faber and Egbert de Weert in composing
the comparative report that contributed to the chapter, and of Frauke Logermann
for conceptual discussions.
The Editor would also like to thank her husband, Jack Simmons, for help with
proofing, Emma Berndt for help with formatting, and to thank the individual
authors for their willingness to work to tight deadlines, particularly at holiday
times. It has been a pleasure to edit the volume.
London, September 2013
viii
LESLEY WILSON
FOREWORD
It is my great pleasure to write the foreword to this important collection of articles
that, from a range of different perspectives, form a coherent whole addressing one
of the main challenges facing higher education institutions across Europe to-day,
namely that of breaking down barriers and enhancing quality in Europe’s higher
education institutions.
The core mission of higher education institutions remains firmly that of
providing learners with the opportunity to learn and ensuring that graduates are
equipped with the knowledge and skills that they need for their personal
development, and also to enable them to contribute to the rapidly changing
knowledge societies of the 21st century. The massive structural reform (through the
Bologna Process) of the first decade of the 21st century has been followed by the
need to respond to the similarly enormous challenges of increasing global
competition, aging populations and the impact of the present financial and
economic crisis.
Demand for and access to higher education continues to grow, as does the
diversity of the student population. There is much debate on the need for more
student centred approaches to teaching and learning accompanied by a growing
awareness of and focus on the importance of quality and quality assurance at all
levels. However difficult it may be to define quality as such, taking account of the
different purposes of higher education and the perspectives of different actors/
stakeholders, quality is a common and shared concern. It has been at the heart of
EUA’s activities since the creation of the association in 2001.
As the largest and most comprehensive organisation representing Europe’s
national university associations and over 800 individual universities, EUA has seen
its role at European level as that of ensuring that the sector’s views are taken into
account in European and national policy discussions on internal and external
quality assurance while at the same time supporting a broad diversity of members
across the 47 countries of the EHEA in developing and promoting institutional
quality cultures.
EUA has been closely involved in all European level policy discussions on
quality in higher education since the early years of the Bologna Process, as a
consultative member of the Bologna Follow-up Group and a member of the Board.
The development of a European framework for cooperation started with the
acknowledgement in the Berlin Communiqué (2003) of the primary role of higher
education institutions in monitoring quality, the first such official
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