Taking stock of changes in quality assurance in Portuguese higher education between 2007 and 2015

Autors/ores

  • Cristina Sin CENTRO DE INVESTIGAÇÃO DE POLITICAS DO ENSINO SUPERIOR (CIPES)
  • Orlanda Tavares CENTRO DE INVESTIGAÇÃO DE POLITICAS DO ENSINO SUPERIOR (CIPES)
  • Alberto Amaral AGÊNCIA DE AVALIAÇÃO E ACREDITAÇÃO DO ENSINO SUPERIOR (A3ES)

Resum

This article documents the changes that occurred in Portugal after the adoption of the new higher education quality assurance framework in 2007. The most obvious results of the new higher education evaluation and accreditation agency’s actions can be observed primarily at the level of teaching‑program provision. Accreditation activities resulted in a 40% reduction in the supply of the courses on offer between 2009 and 2015 (Sin et al., 2016). This reduction was felt mainly in private institutions, which confirms that substandard programmes were more common in the private sector. Another consequence was that institutions started to take a more formal and systematic approach to quality by implementing internal quality assurance systems. These systems were driven by a logic of accountability rather than by genuine self‑reflection aiming to engage all those involved and which would have led to improvement. Therefore, it appears that most academics perceive internal quality assurance to have had negative effects on teaching and learning, mainly because of increased bureaucracy, while the positive effects are still perceived as being relatively modest.

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Biografies de l'autor/a

Cristina Sin, CENTRO DE INVESTIGAÇÃO DE POLITICAS DO ENSINO SUPERIOR (CIPES)

Cristina Sin is a postdoctoral researcher at CIPES (Centro de Investigação de Políticas do Ensino Superior). She has a PhD in Educational Research from Lancaster University (UK). She previously worked at the Higher Education Academy (UK) on educational projects aimed at improving teaching and learning in higher education.

Orlanda Tavares, CENTRO DE INVESTIGAÇÃO DE POLITICAS DO ENSINO SUPERIOR (CIPES)

Orlanda Tavares is a researcher at CIPES and at A3ES. She has a doctorate in Education Sciences from the
University of Porto (Portugal) and investigates issues related to quality assurance in higher education and higher
education policies.

Alberto Amaral, AGÊNCIA DE AVALIAÇÃO E ACREDITAÇÃO DO ENSINO SUPERIOR (A3ES)

Alberto Amaral has a doctorate from Cambridge University, and is a researcher at CIPES and a professor at the University of Porto, where he was rector from 1985 to 1998. He is currently the chairman of the board of directors of the Portuguese Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Agency.

Descàrregues

Publicades

2017-12-19

Com citar

Sin, C., Tavares, O. and Amaral, A. (2017) “Taking stock of changes in quality assurance in Portuguese higher education between 2007 and 2015”, Debats. Revista de cultura, poder i societat, 2. Available at: https://revistadebats.net/article/view/1725 (Accessed: 28 March 2024).

Número

Secció

SPECIAL ISSUE 2