Shadows over accreditation in higher education: some quantitative evidence

Abstract

Shadows over accreditation in higher education: some quantitative evidenceAccreditation systems in Higher Education are widespread both in the US and in Europe. However, numerous reservations have appeared in the literature about whether these systems can comprehend and represent the quality of university courses. This study sets out to contribute to this debate by discussing whether the results of the recent university teaching accreditation system in Italy are influenced by the characteristics of degree programmes, their performance and the characteristics of incoming students. Whilst addressing this research question this paper intents above all to give a methodological contribution by proposing an evidence-based approach that tackles the limits found in the literature in relation to university accreditation and quality assurance

Referentes teóricos para un modelo de acreditación desde la evaluación y la gestión de la calidad

“…Ella crea un proceso de autoaprendizaje continuo donde cada uno de los actores gestiona por sí mismo los estándares propuestos hacia la calidad. Además, históricamente ha puesto énfasis en la relación de los procesos de enseñanza aprendizaje, las características de las carreras y la forma en que las personas estudiantes transitan hacia el logro de los saberes disciplinares del programa educativo (Andreani et al, 2020).…”

Do academic disciplines matter? An analysis of organizational responses to the accreditation of graduate programs by field of study and sector

“…Other research has compared the accreditation of programs across different disciplines. Recent studies (Andreani et al, 2020;Corengia, 2015;Sin et al, 2017;Stura et al, 2019) have found relevant relationships between the accreditation performance and certain academic disciplines in some programs in Argentina, Italy, and Portugal. The results point out critical differences among disciplines, confirming some of the hypothesized relationships.…”

“…In all these studies, academic disciplines play a strong role in how accreditation impacts specific programs, but it is not the only factor. Other variables, such as geographical location, sector (private or public), and student intake, may also affect the performance of programs in accreditation processes (Andreani et al, 2020).…”

“…The use of four combinations of academic disciplines (combining hard, soft, pure, and applied) seeks to provide a much better understanding of the issue. As previous research (Andreani et al, 2020) has found strong relationships between sector-private or public-and accreditation performance, the disciplinary analysis is supplemented with a private-public comparison. Additionally, the analysis attempts to move beyond the description of trends and try to explain, from the perspective of program coordinators and graduate education office administrators, the reasons behind possible differences and their responses.…”

“…The existence-or absence-of differential performance in graduate programs' accreditation by academic discipline is the first consequential question tackled by this article. Previous research on academic disciplines points out clear differences (Andreani et al, 2020;Corengia, 2015;Sin et al, 2017;Stura et al, 2019), although none has approached the combination of the four types of disciplines and accreditation results.…”