Perspektivy hodnocení kvality ve vysokoškolském vzdělávání

Abstract

Tertiary education institutions and other stakeholders , e.g. government educational bodies, academic community, students, accrediting organizations, experts as well as future employers and general public in countries with a long tradition of educational quality assurance processes, are increasingly focusing on accountability for excellent quality. This might be considered a global phenomenon. Various stakeholders in various countries however have their own perspective about institutional effectiveness and accountability. The best respond to their call for the demonstration of institutional effectiveness and accountability is a systematic institutional assessment and evaluation process, indicating how the institution fulfils its mission and goals. But different institutions in different countries have different cultures, characteristic features and missions. Thus it is meaningful to strive for a common understanding of what occurs on a global basic, aiming at revealing relations through ecploiting the knowledge about specific activities in the specific context of a respective country or institution. In this study, we try to trace new aspects of quality assessment, such as the implementation of seemingly the most rigorous interpretation of quality assurance and quality improvement in the U.S.A. where academic institutions are starting to provide evidence of student learning outcomes, facing the pressure of legislators and policymakers to introduce external assessments like standardized tests allowing for interinstitutional or national comparisons. In the critical analysis of British model of external and internal quality evaluation, the relations between educational review and educational standards and the pros and cons of the process of quality assurance formed by the national educational policy, are implied. The question whether quality monitoring leads to improvement or whether it produces somewhat formal "game-playing" with the aim to design the respond to fulfil the requirements of quality assurance and monitoring processes, is also considered. Nevertheless accountability for excellent quality is understood by higher education institutions as one of the fundamental attributes coinciding their autonomy. In a mature and reflective institution focusing on the provision of relevant educational experiences to students, the internal and external review and evaluation lead to the conscious recognition of strenghts and weaknesses and the identification of areas for improvement and development.