Conclusions and Further Challenges

Compromiso estudiantil en educación superior: adaptación y validación de un cuestionario de evaluación en universidades chilenas

“…Durante los últimos 15 años, puede apreciarse una relativa convergencia entre académicos, políticos y técnicos en que las políticas del aseguramiento de la calidad han subestimado la experiencia estudiantil y el foco en los resultados de aprendizaje. Más bien, han promovido una evaluación a veces excesivamente formal (o de cumplimiento de ciertas condiciones muy generales) que no necesariamente se hace cargo de un sistema más diverso y dinámico (Westerheijden, Stensaker & Rosa, 2007).…”

Assessment, evaluation and quality assurance: Implications for integrity in reporting academic achievement in higher education

“…Given this expansion, governments, institutions, employers, academics, students and the public at large have raised questions about whether the quality of higher education is being adequately protected, that is, being properly controlled or assured (Westerheijden, Stensaker & Rosa, 2007). A key question is: What is the entity to be assured?…”

Quality assurance in the political context: in the midst of different expectations and conflicting goals

“…It has been a rapid process. Within about two decades quality assurance has developed from single initiatives to a well-institutionalised regulatory régime (Westerheijden et al, 2007). Nevertheless, there are also tensions within the system.…”

“…The paper focuses on European countries in general terms without going into national details. Whether there is a convergence in national quality assurance is a much discussed topic and some common trends are apparent (Westerheijden et al, 2007), as well as much national variety at a deeper level (Stensaker, 2014). As Pollitt (2001) has helpfully pointed out, convergence in national reform efforts depends on the level of analysis, for example, convergence in policy debates is not the same as convergence in actual practices and it may be a 'helpful myth' of its own value.…”

“…Recent developments such as U-Multirank try to be sensitive to the issue of fitness for purpose while combining it with the goals of recognising excellence (van Vught & Ziegele, 2012) but whether such a combination fills a societal need remains to be seen. The current orientation to student outputs, qualifications and standards (Westerheijden et al, 2007) makes sense in a specific formulation of quality but would leave stakeholders with an alternative understanding of quality dissatisfied.…”