Swiss Quality Assurance Accreditation System in Higher Education

Swiss Quality Assurance & Accreditation System in Higher Education: Perspectives for Southeast Asia By Dr. Alexandre Dormeier Freire, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID), 1 Geneva SEAMEO, Nha Trang 10 -11 August 2009

Quality assurance and accreditation, the context 1. Consequence of ‘massification’ or democratization of higher education. Globalization => Increasing mobility, etc. 2. HE turned into a commodity: responsiveness of universities increases effectiveness 3. What is quality insurance? => attention on quality maintenance and improvement (Vroeijenstijn, 1995) 4. It’s not about benchmarking => compliance (with laws) and enhancement, it’s a process 5. What is accreditation? => legitimation of institutions to award degrees, granting quality mark indicating that certain standards are met (Vroeijenstijin, 2005) 2

Swiss Academic System Overview 1. Switzerland has 9 Cantonal Universities and 2 Federal technological universities 2. University law based on national (federal) legislation, but education is highly decentralized 3. Academic world is homogenous and small (100‘ 000 HE students), but sharp increase of enrollments in the 1980’s 4. Bologna process appeared in late 1990 s 5. Quality assurance & accreditation established lately in 2000 3

Swiss Quality Accreditation System European Network for Quality Assurance in HE (ENQA), European Consortium for Accreditation (ECA) in HE- ‘Code of good practice’ Federal State Swiss Parliament Quality Accreditatio n Organization (QAO) Cantons Ac cre dit ati on op era tio ns O QA s. ide C ec SU , d to te s da end an m mm C co SU re = QAA relations = Political relation Universities Accreditation decisions = Financial and/or political 4 Swiss University Conference (SUC)

Accreditation procedures/1 3 stages for assessment: 1. Minimal norms are elaborated on structures and internal results (objectives definition, internal governance, infrastructures, curriculum, research results, stakeholders’ participation -students association, staff- etc. ) 1. 1 Self-assessment also requested 2. External experts assess whether minimal norms are reached (university visits) 2. 1. Interviews with all stakeholders (students, professors, deans, etc. ) 3. Report, verification, validation and position proposed to SUC 4. 3 decisions possible: accreditation granted, accreditation subject to conditions, accreditation denied 5

Accreditation procedures/2 Some remarks: 1. Accreditation is limited in time (7 years) 2. Focus on teaching evaluation => ‘research results’ is gaining importance 3. SUC takes the final decision of assessment 4. Accreditation is not obligatory, but strong incentive by law suspicions of Cantons to Federal control 5. Accreditation for public and private institutions 6. Both institutes and course are accredited => flexibility 6

Perspectives for SEA/1 On quality convergence: 1. National policies have to be integrated in a regional framework, need to overcome domestic approaches => mutual recognition 2. Recognition of antagonistic dimensions: selfdetermination, need of convergences => Is a ‘general model’ desirable? 3. Common elements in QA & A different national models. Convergence and emerging global consensuses on quality assurance & accreditation (Khawas 1998) 4. But: difficulties to define ‘standards’ of quality => 23 criteria on 3 dimensions of ENQA 7

Perspectives for SEA/2 On the QAA governance system: 1. Independence of the accreditation organization, non-profit oriented, combining national, international expertise => closedcircuit desirable? 2. Monopoly of one QAA agency 3. transparency of decisions 4. Accreditation organization doesn’t take political decisions separation between strategic and operational levels in QAA procedures 5. No automatic link between QAA results and financial support 6. Check and balances => Switzerland has found a compromise, not perfect though => flexibility 7. Who determines the assessment framework? 8

Thank you! > Email: alexandre. freire@graduateinstitute. ch > Website: http: //graduateinstitute. ch