Quality Assurance in a Changing World María José Lemaitre INQAAHE Conference Abu Dhabi, March...

Quality Assurance in a Quality Assurance in a Changing WorldChanging World

María José LemaitreINQAAHE Conference

Abu Dhabi, March 2009

MJL INQAAHE, Abu Dhabi 2

Some people say it is: Some people say it is:

Is the world changingIs the world changing??

What makes the world flatter?What makes the world flatter?• Growing need for highly skilled and educated

workers and a link between educated manpower and economic development

• The expansion of secondary education systems; • Increasing links to the international system, mobility

and outsourcing as important factors• Increasing democratization, scientisation and

development planning


Changes in the HE world:Changes in the HE world:• Expansion of tertiary education systems• Diversification of provision• More heterogeneous student bodies• New funding arrangements• Increasing focus on accountability and performance• New forms of institutional governance• Global networking, mobility and collaboration

Increased diversity of higher education systems



Challenges for Higher Education: Challenges for Higher Education: TeachingTeaching

Need to re-define teaching, to answer to the needs of a varied population of students:• Change the organization of teaching (short cycle programs,

modular arrangements, links with the labor market, new packaging for traditional programs)

• Adjust to new curricular requirements (basic skills and knowledge, general competencies, ‘soft’ skills; greater flexibility, multiple career paths, articulation, capacity for life long learning)

• New pedagogical approaches (need to provide a structure for available information rather than providing information; focus on learning rather than teaching)

Challenges for Higher Education: Challenges for Higher Education: TeachingTeaching

Teaching becomes the central business of many HEIs need to revalue teaching as a critical function • Changes in the methods for evaluating academic staff• New approaches to academic staff development• Changes in academic organization• Changes in the organization of resources and mechanisms

for their allocation



Challenges for Higher Education: Challenges for Higher Education: ManagementManagement

Need to revise and specify institutional mission statements:• Determination of main actual functions, and need to make

institutional organization consistent with the adopted decisions

• Identification of the ways in which these functions will be developed

• Consideration of different stakeholders in these definitions



Impact of new sources of funding• Funding and institutional autonomy• Privatization of decision making

Requirement for accountability• Assessment of outcomes in relation to stated

purposes• Internal quality assurance mechanisms• Information systems to support decision making



Consideration of globalization and international competition• Cooperation mechanisms• Competition mechanisms

The requirements of national, regional and international integration• Mechanisms to promote mobility• International presence within a context of quality

IMPLICATIONS FOR QA


Quality and diversityQuality and diversityQuality within a TE system is increasingly associated with diversity:•it enables TEIs to respond to a wider range of needs, from students and employers•it stimulates social and professional mobility•it provides opportunities for innovation

Quality at the institutional level is still associated with traditional views (the zombie scene of TE)


Barriers to diversityBarriers to diversity• Centralized and uniform governmental policies• Imitative behavior by lower status institutions• Academic conservantism QA mechanisms are a good vehicle for all these

factors QA mechanisms may actually make quality difficult,

if not impossible

when?MJL INQAAHE, Abu Dhabi 12

When QA is seen as an end, not a When QA is seen as an end, not a means for improved qualitymeans for improved quality

QA is meant to promote quality, and help to meet developmental needs of TE

But … QA is about evaluation, and evaluation is about power. Sometimes, it is easy to be tempted to build TE systems in the QA agency’s image

Need to learn about the system, to be in touch with international developments, good practices

Need to recognize and validate innovative practicesNeed to use a wide range of consultants and reviewers


When standards and procedures are When standards and procedures are too rigid or homogeneoustoo rigid or homogeneous

• Need to recognize and validate different institutional models, and learn about the features that make them effective

• Avoid standards that are too rigid, or the application of procedures or standards that are too homogeneous

• Find new ways to define quality, adaptable to different circumstances


When standards are too When standards are too prescriptive, or too formalprescriptive, or too formal

• Need to avoid prescribing a preferred way of doing things – TEIs are different, and there may be many different ways of achieving the desired outcome

• Standards that are too formal, or a strong focus on quantitative indicators make it difficult to pay attention to the substantive, underlying issues


When QA loses its learning capacityWhen QA loses its learning capacity

• HE is an essentially dynamic operation – its quality cannot be assured with a static process

• Need to be able to revise the definition of quality, the criteria, the procedures, the mechanisms for self and external review, on the basis of experience

• Need to learn – and to un-learn!• Learning comes from a variety of sources: academic

staff, external reviewers, internal and external stakeholders, international exchanges

Need to keep eyes and ears open Need to keep eyes and ears open MJL INQAAHE, Abu Dhabi 16

When it demands compliance, and When it demands compliance, and mistakes it for qualitymistakes it for quality

• All guidelines for good practice stress that quality is the responsibility of TEIs, not of the QA agency

• Need to work towards the development of self regulation policies, mechanisms and procedures

• QA work should be done with TEIs, not to TEIs


SO, WHAT IS A QA AGENCY TO DO?SO, WHAT IS A QA AGENCY TO DO?


October, 2007 María José Lemaitre 19

A new approach to qualityA new approach to quality

Doing the same Doing the same but betterbut better

Innovation and Innovation and improvementimprovement

Current situationCurrent situationChange: new Change: new issues, new issues, new approachesapproaches

Impr

ovem

ent

Impr

ovem

ent

InnovationInnovation

Promote institutional capacity for Promote institutional capacity for self regulationself regulation

Promote and assess whether the TEI has in place:• Clear purposes and goals, that can guide decision making at

different institutional levels• Policies and mechanisms that are consistent with purposes

and goals• Links between self assessment and planning• Links between planning and allocation of resources• Mechanisms for assessing whether objectives are being

achieved• Feed back into next cycle of planning


Tertiary education is changing, and QA Tertiary education is changing, and QA processes must change with it, or become processes must change with it, or become

irrelevantirrelevantQA must become an essential part of QA must become an essential part of institutional management and planninginstitutional management and planning

It is a process that takes timeIt is a process that takes timeIt must be done with TEIs, learning to trust them It must be done with TEIs, learning to trust them

and to help them improve themselvesand to help them improve themselvesMJL INQAAHE, Abu Dhabi 21

May we have a great conference, and a good May we have a great conference, and a good learning experiencelearning experience

Thank youThank you

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