The importance and degree of implementation of the European standards and guidelines for internal quality assurance in universities: the views of Portuguese academics

Abstract

This research seeks to explore academics’ perceptions of the importance and degree of implementation of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) for internal quality assurance. It uses empirical evidence from Portugal, gathered via a questionnaire given to all university academics. Results show academics’ perceptions of the importance and implementation of the ESG in their institutions to be quite positive. Nevertheless, academics tend to find the standards more important than effectively implemented. Furthermore, significant differences in perceptions emerge between groups of academics. This study intends to contribute to a better understanding of the implementation of quality management practices in universities, and the influence of the ESG in this process.

Keywords:

• quality management
• European standards and guidelines (ESG)
• Portugal
• importance
• implementation

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the A3ES Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education for help with data collection, and Lydia Hartwig and Johanna Witte for welcoming Maria J. Manatos as a visiting researcher at the Bavarian State Institute for Higher Education Research and Planning, where this paper was in part written. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions based on an earlier version of this text.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the FCT Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia under [grant number PEst-OE/CED/UI0757/2013] (which is funded by the Programme COMPETE) and [grant number EXCL/IVC-PEC/0789/2012]. Maria J. Manatos was supported by the FCT under PhD [grant number SFRH/BD/69159/2010] (which is funded by the Programme POPH/FSE).