Spanish Universities' Quality: the incentive of external evaluation

Abstract

The fundamental legal and organisational transformation of the Spanish university system during the 1980s has had an impact on autonomy, management, academic programmes and funding. An evaluation culture has been developed and culminated in the National Plan of Evaluation of the Universities’ Quality, promoted and co‐ordinated by the Council of Universities, and set in motion in 1996. This Plan, in which most Spanish universities are taking part, is trying to evaluate the institutions in a global way, focusing particularly on the following aspects: teaching, research and management. The Plan combines self‐studies and external evaluation. This paper analyses the encouraging effects of the process of external evaluation.