Higher Education, Quality Evaluation and Accreditation in Latin America and MERCOSUR

Abstract

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the issue of the quality of education began to develop in several Latin American countries. In previous decades, the main points concerning the planning and development of education placed emphasis on quantitative aspects and their relation to economic and social life. The main challenges were growth, the enlarging of educational coverage, the building of schools and teacher training, paying little attention to quality aspects. In the 1970s, several Latin American countries (Chile, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Panama, etc.) included quality as a subject, but in a framework of changes in the education systems that generally turned out to be unsuccessful and not permanent.In the 1980s, in a framework of political restrictions imposed by the military dictatorships in their final stages, or of their recently recovered democracies, Latin American countries were engaged in a reflection on quality and equity.These were considered a priority, first, with regard to primary and secondary levels and more especially evaluation of student performance and later, in the university field, based on the institutional evaluation processes carried out in the US and Canada and then in Europe in the framework of the constitution of the EU. More recently, the Bologna process began to have an important influence in several Latin American countries. This process represents an important challenge, not only with regard to their objectives and aims, but also to their political and institutional methodologies and academic matters so as to carry out their higher education system reforms in a way that corresponds to those in North America and Europe. Education in MERCOSURIn the 1990s, the Asunción Treaty created MERCOSUR with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, and the Education Area was instituted. In June 1992, the Meeting of the Ministers of Education of MERCOSUR (MME) in Buenos Aires approved the first Triennial Plan for the MERCOSUR Education Area. From the outset, it was intended to make compatible the education systems and obtain the recognition of studies and the homologation of degrees in order to facilitate the mobility of students and professionals in the region and formulate flexibility proposals and accreditation.

Overview of accreditation of undergraduate medical education programmes worldwide

“…This recognition process usually takes place when a school has been in operation for a number of years (F Menezes, personal communication, 2007). Accrediting agencies in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay are involved in the Experimental Accreditation Mechanism of Programmes (Mecanismo Experimental de Acreditación de Carreras, MEXA), which aims to certify the quality and equivalence of university degrees in agronomy, engineering and medicine across the region 16 …”

New Demands and Policies on Higher Education in the Mercosur: A Comparative Study on Challenges, Resources, and Trends

“…It has to be underlined that new legislation related to the higher education sector is closely linked to the creation of new quality assurance institutions that includes new bodies of evaluation, accreditation, planning and funding. Some authors (Krotsch, 2001;García Guadilla, 2002;Fernández Lamarra, 2003) have described the emergence of new 'heights bodies' dealing with national or regional cycles of accreditation.…”

A Critique of the Use of Self‐evaluation in a Compulsory Accreditation System

“…That is the focus of this article. Accreditation takes place in Asia (Peace Lenn, 2004), in South and Central America (Lamarra, 2003) and in Arab countries (Bayoumi-Elmangoli & Kemenade, 2008). In Africa, higher education is accredited, for instance in Kenya and South Africa (Uvalic-Trumbic, 2003).…”