Impact evaluation of programme accreditation at Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain)

ABSTRACT

The article reports on a case study of impact evaluation of external quality assurance, i.e. programme accreditation, which was carried out by the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency at Autonomous University of Barcelona in the form of a methodological before-after comparison. The impact evaluation exhibits a marked stability of the attitudes towards quality assurance of different stakeholders and shows that the majority of teachers do not perceive effects of quality assurance in learning and teaching. The analysis further indicates that teachers’ awareness of certain quality assurance instruments increases during accreditation and that university leadership is seen as highly supportive for quality assurance by teachers. The study also demonstrates that for teachers the perceived amount of expenditure is clearly higher than the perceived benefit. Finally, a series of open answers gives indications for possible improvement of the university's quality assurance and organizational structures.

KEYWORDS:

• Before-after comparison
• external quality assurance
• higher education
• impact evaluation
• programme accreditation

Acknowledgement

This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Theodor Leiber is Scientific Advisor and higher education researcher with Evaluation Agency Baden-Wuerttemberg, Mannheim (Germany) and Associate Professor of Philosophy at University of Augsburg (Germany). He earned doctoral degrees in Theoretical Physics and Philosophy. His research focuses on evaluation, impact studies, performance measurement and governance, quality management and organisational development in higher education as well as philosophy of science and ethics.

Anna Prades is Project Manager in the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency (Barcelona, Spain). She coordinates the placement surveys that the Catalan universities carry out regularly. She was engaged in European research projects on quality assurance and its impact and was also active in designing quality assessment methodology. She earned a degree in Psychology and a PhD in Pedagogy (University of Barcelona).

Maripaz Alvarez del Castillo is Director of the Teaching Quality Office at Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain), where she also earned a Masters’ degree in Physics. She is a postgraduate in Computer Architecture and Knowledge Management and coordinates the development of the Internal Quality Systems of the university. She is active in evaluation panels of universities and quality assurance agencies in Spain.

ORCID

Theodor Leiber http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7218-2603

Maripaz Alvarez del Castillo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0051-8489

Additional information

Funding

The authors did part of the work on this article in the context of a project on impact evaluation of quality assurance in higher education institutions, which was co-funded by the European Commission (Grant no.: 539481-LLP-1-2013-1-DE-ERASMUS-EIGF); Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency.