Quality as a Tool for Autonomy Autonomy as a Condition for Quality

1. Quality as a Tool for AutonomyAutonomy as a Condition for Quality Prof. Dr. Dirk Van Damme VLIR / Ghent University

2. Outline • The emergence of quality • The shifting significance of quality • Quality → Autonomy → Quality → EUA Conference - Dirk Van Damme

3. The emergence of quality • political exchange between increasing institutional autonomy and development of quality assurance arrangements • autonomy and deregulation in exchange to accountability • ‘evaluative state’ (Neave): public interest in quality and quality assurance systems • from input- to output-steering EUA Conference - Dirk Van Damme

4. The emergence of quality • external drivers probably more powerful than internal ‘autonomous’ demand • massification and concerns for a potential decline of standards • diminishing confidence of stake-holders in traditional academic quality management • increasing demand for more accountability • public demand for transparency (ranking) • pressures to increase cost-effectiveness EUA Conference - Dirk Van Damme

5. The emergence of quality • the ‘power game’ about quality • externally: • delicate boundary tensions and conflicts between universities and state, stakeholders and students • in some cases quality assurance leads to erosion of autonomy or puts heavy burderns on institutions • internally: • difficult acceptance of quality regime by academia • quality used to enforce central institutional authority EUA Conference - Dirk Van Damme

6. The emergence of quality • QA is also shaping boundaries • between old and new, insiders and outsiders • protectionist elements or functions of QA • ownership of quality assurance is crucial • various models in ownership of European QA systems ranging from ‘self-regulation’ to external ‘inspection’ and ‘evaluation’ • self-evaluation and peer-review crucial tools EUA Conference - Dirk Van Damme

7. The emergence of quality • conclusions: • quality assurance as a complement to autonomy • quality assurance was not developed from within university system, but demanded from outside • balance between improvement and accountability • quality assurance as power arena • ownership of QA systems of strategic importance • quality essential for legitimacy and self-regulation EUA Conference - Dirk Van Damme

8. The shifting significance of quality • criticisms of first generation QA systems • bureaucracy, administrative overload, costs • status and nature of quality statements • need for benchmarking of standards; limits of relativistic ‘fitness for purpose’-paradigm • demands for stronger follow-up arrangements • delicate balance between internal improvement functions and external accountability functions • ‘conservative’ effects of QA; QA and innovation EUA Conference - Dirk Van Damme

9. The shifting significance of quality • criticisms of first generation QA systems • concept of ‘quality’ still in need of definition • from assessing formal characteristics of programmes to assessing learning outcomes • from detailed assessment lists and statistical indicators to “carpenters’ eye” • demands to institutionalise QA: integrate quality in steering mechanisms, funding, etc. • still high internal tolerance for low quality? EUA Conference - Dirk Van Damme

10. The shifting significance of quality • changing environment • from egalitarian massification to a more competitive higher education market • from domestic focus to globalising environment • towards differentiation in institutions and delivery modes • from meritocracy to lifelong learning, eroding the only left monopoly, degrees EUA Conference - Dirk Van Damme

11. The shifting significance of quality • Bologna • need to develop a ‘European approach’ • QA as a tool for transparency of the system • QA and accreditation as guaranteeing the legitimacy of new bachelor/master degrees • the quality issue will come to the foreground of the Bologna process towards Berlin 2003 • but, progress in this domain is not yet substantial EUA Conference - Dirk Van Damme

12. The shifting significance of quality • apparently divergent developments • strengthening external functions of quality: • accreditation to underpin credibility of new degrees • quality as labelling on competitive markets • transparency, accountability and public information • strengthening internal quality capacity: • ‘quality culture’ in institutions is more important than formal QA procedures • renewed appeal to self-management (e.g. QAA) EUA Conference - Dirk Van Damme

13. The shifting significance of quality • conclusions • need for a re-thinking of quality arrangements • less bureaucratic, costly, detailed, … • more outcome-oriented, supportive to innovation, … • more adapted to needs of changed environment (globalisation, Bologna, differentiation, competition) • stronger external functions of quality will make quality issue more sensitive and strategic • self-regulation approach even more necessary EUA Conference - Dirk Van Damme

14. Quality → Autonomy → Quality → • questions • are universities willing to leave the safe haven of domestic polity to engage autonomously in the European and global arena? • are universities internally strong and coherent enough to face new demands on autonomy? • what will be the effects of differentiation and increasing de-institutionalisation on autonomy? • are universities ready to accept regulatory functions of quality in new environment? EUA Conference - Dirk Van Damme

15. Quality → Autonomy → Quality → • institutional autonomy increasingly is a condition to deliver high quality education and research and to be accountable and responsible in a complex environment • external trust in the quality of universities and their activities will be the only way to legitimise and to further increase institutional autonomy EUA Conference - Dirk Van Damme

16. Quality → Autonomy → Quality → • the quality issue will become more central in defining the boundaries between the institution and the environment, in defining ‘autonomy’ • universities need to strengthen their internal quality arrangements and capacities (‘quality culture’) in order to balance the external functions of QA EUA Conference - Dirk Van Damme

17. Quality → Autonomy → Quality → • universities need to defend even stronger a self-regulation approach, in order to further define themselves as a respectable sector and to resist attempts to impose external control • greater responsiveness to external demands for accountability, transparency, credibility etc. is not opposite to self-regulation, but element of public responsibility, safeguarding autonomy EUA Conference - Dirk Van Damme