University institutions create a scenario where teaching is not committed with social transformation, but mainly with an aspiration towards elitism and the students´ contentment (students understood as “clientele”); research, on its turn, no longer seeks to meet the demands of our society (Sparkes, 2013). On the contrary, it follows the priorities set by foreign multinational companies (Berbegal-Mirabent & Ribeiro-Soriano, 2015). The quality and scientific value of the work is therefore defined by those companies that then lead an “impact culture” difficult to escape from.
Hence the challenges and difficulties that the Spanish university runs into whilst meeting the dynamic and interests of the markets (Berbegal-Mirabent & Ribeiro-Soriano, 2015), especially after its adaptation to the European Higher Education Area.
So, the question could be: Quality assessment systems for university teaching staff: a tool for improving the quality of the system, or an instrument for precariousness?
Dear Gustavo González-Calvo
These articles might be useful, have a look:
1. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0248758
2. Article Enhancing Academic Quality and Collegial Control: Insights f...
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3255110/
4. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1165896.pdf
Best Regards
Dr. Fatemeh Khozaei
Quality is a notional term. When it comes to the universities, there are many factors to consider for 'Quality'.
Higher education is a connecting link between the education and industry / society.
So various audits help to make those conditions clearer for all the stakeholders.
For example our NGO Grand Academic Portal - GAP provide quality audit modules like Eco Audit, gender audit, health and fitness audit, curriculum audit, research audit and overall academic audit.
They are are copyrighted modules which help institutions to raise their bars.
www.gaac.in
You may check this website.
In general, audit culture refers to the application of regulatory systems across a wide variety of enterprises and institutions, in which quality concerns are absorbed by managerial logics. Objectivity, efficiency, and productivity are the most important qualities that form audit culture.
The question, in this case, is: should universities be governed according to business parameters?
Gustavo González-Calvo not at all. They should be governed seeking formative excellence. Excellence is a non-political term, no matter some politicians try to own it. Excellent physicians, excellent teachers, excellent engineers, excellent lawyers, excellent researchers...that´s the desirable parameter. And universities that run away from companies looking for something more that excellence, will be in the correct path.
I believe that universities have taken over business discourses. And terms like quality, excellence, etc., are very common in universities and in faculty evaluation programmes.
Dear Prof Gustavo González-Calvo , you point to a highly critical issue. When developing a quality assurance model for blended learning in our university [1,2], we identified four core approaches for teaching and learning quality: minimum standards, excellence standards, towards the interior and the exterior. Hence, students as clients is just one part of the equation. I align with Prof Daniel Bores-García suggestion for excellence in ways that encourages lecturers' creativity and innovation for unique courses towards intrinsic motivation and deep, transformative, meaningful learning [3] of future professionals.
[1] Mystakidis, S., Berki, E., & Valtanen, J.-P. (2019). The Patras Blended Strategy Model for Deep and Meaningful Learning in Quality Life‑Long Distance Education. Electronic Journal of E-Learning, 17(2), 66–78. https://doi.org/10.34190/JEL.17.2.01
Article The Patras Blended Strategy Model for Deep and Meaningful Le...
[2] Mystakidis, S., Berki, E., Valtanen, J.-P., & Amanatides, E. (2018). Towards a Blended Strategy for Quality Distance Education Life-Long Learning Courses – The Patras Model. 17th European Conference on E-Learning (ECEL), 408–416. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/openview/993f73d32d7189e82a0429d1ebdfe651/1
Conference Paper Towards a Blended Strategy for Quality Distance Education Li...
[3] Mystakidis, S. (2021). Deep and Meaningful Learning. Encyclopedia, 1(3), 988–997. https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia1030075
Article Deep Meaningful Learning
Dear Stylianos,
Thank you very much for your reply, very interesting. I wonder: are we sure that using these business terms (excellence, quality, etc.) and putting in place the bureaucratic processes to respond to them, improves the education that students receive in universities?
Best wishes,
Gustavo.
Maybe of interest:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318192814_Effects_from_audit_culture_and_neoliberalism_on_university_teaching_an_autoethnographic_perspective
Dear Gustavo González-Calvo , in my PhD dissertation I explored the Higher Education future paradigm debate in conjunction with the Quality Education SDG and the generalist vs. specialist dichotomy. I argue for combining excellence with positive societal transformation: a university that delivers a robust blend of conceptual, theoretical knowledge with procedural knowledge and skills through a focus on technology-enhanced deep meaningful learning. Visions of this nature have the potential to inspire leadership and link effectively bureaucratic quality processes with tangible impact on students, economy and society.
Mystakidis, S. (2019). Motivation Enhanced Deep and Meaningful Learning with Social Virtual Reality (University of Jyväskylä, Finland). Retrieved and openly available from https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/66667
Thesis Motivation Enhanced Deep and Meaningful Learning with Social...
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