CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT, A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS

1. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT,A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS Veronica Mendoza Durán, Fernando Avelar Martínez, Reyna Isabel Roa Rivera mendoza.veronica@uabc.edu.mx , favelar@uabc.edu.mx, reyna.roa@uabc.edu.mx

2. INTRODUCTION Usually in the development of accreditation processes are working steadily and repetitive, it is here that appeals to creativity and innovation, in order to meet objectives, leverage resources and find opportunities. Success depends on a combination of creativity, knowledge, experience, innovation and collaborative work to achieve continuous improvement. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT,A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS

3. Developmentstudy PROBLEM Taking into account the purpose of accrediting agencies and educational agencies, to ensure that the guidelines are met, this project was the need for continuous improvement of the processes of planning and evaluation of the educational program of Bachelor of Architecture. Therefore, this investigation was to identify the characteristics of continuous improvement evident in the accreditation process of the educational program of Bachelor of Architecture of the Facultad de Arquitectura y Diseño at the UABC. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT,A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS

4. OBJECTIVE Support the needs of information management and processing of data required for accreditation processes from the experience of the participants in the process of accreditation of Dependencia de Educación Superior de Ingeniería y Tecnología Mexicali (DES-ITM). CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT,A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS

5. FOUNDATION In close connection with the accreditation process is continuous improvement, since as mentioned Chang (1996), "the only way to stay successful is to continually improve the way they do things and exceeding their goals and achievements. It goes beyond external competition. Need compete with himself, always striving to do better and achieve the highest excellence "(p.2). But the peer review, service and remuneration of society are living UABC educational model, which seeks the integral formation of students, creating a relevant and permanent learning, working together with peers and in relation to the context external surroundings. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT,A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS

6. DESIGN According to the classification of research designs that provide Hernández, Fernández and Baptista (2006), this research is not experimental, quantitative, descriptive and transversal. This, as it does not involve any intentional manipulation of variables by the researcher and data were collected at a single time. The quantitative approach uses the collection and analysis of data to answer research questions, and relies on numerical measurement, counting and the use of statistics to identify patterns in a population.Was identified as the unit of analysis to academic units represented in Dependencia de Educación Superior (DES). CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT,A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS

7. INTERPRETATION OF DATA Firstcategory According to data provided by the participants, in the category "General", 54% were female and 46% male. The age of respondents provided a maximum of 72 years, mean 49 years, with a minimum of 36 years of age. The average age in the UABC is 19 years, of which 69% have master's, 23% of participants have been studies doctoral degree and 8%. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT,A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS

8. Positions currently played by the participants within their academic unit, is that 54% of participants in positions of coordinating various areas within the institution, 30% are full-time teachers, 8% post of deputy and 8% charge of professional practices, allowing us to visualize the preparation with participants of the accreditation process and the diversity regarding the roles. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT,A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS

9. Secondcategory The second category "Accreditation Process", provided the frequency at which the participants have worked in the accreditation process, with 69% in the last two accreditations and 31% of the participants in the working group for the integration of accreditation project only, playing at the time of their participation in the processes 54% over as teachers, 38% as coordinator and 8% as deputy. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT,A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS

10. Thirdcategory The third category "Opinion and satisfaction in the process," he reflected on the stage as a result of collaboration of the respondents that 42% of participants collaborate on self-assessment, 20% in the external assessment, 17% participated in the application to the accrediting body, 12% in the continuous improvement process and 9% in developing descriptive letters. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT,A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS

11. In this same category through open questions were questioned functions, problems and complexities that are expressed during the process, as a result it was found that functions as the most dedicated in the process with 50% was the collection and organization of the information requested, followed with 21% of the emission tie performance review of the curriculum and academic quality rating, finally with 8% descriptive chart production. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT,A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS

12. Participants reported that the problems encountered were, for the 42% labor uncoordinated to 33% are short delivery of information, 17% thought that a dominant ideology is presented in the results, and finally in this question 8% agreed that there is little audience and puts one female participant: "in the stage of the process in which I participated Note the absence of teachers who were also invited to participate," another participant in sex case male mentions "lack of statistical information, very little information electronically, most are on paper and you have to work it hard to adapt to the formats of the accrediting body.“ CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT,A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS

13. In relation to the last question in this category, 41% of participants felt that the more complex the process was gathering information which was scattered, 25% agreed on the configuration information, tying with 17% the reach agreements and meet time. As one female participant, "Collecting and integrating information since that is held in isolation from each participant and not in a database", another participant in this case male says, "Bringing accreditation to the configuration concept plans and most important set of materials in a new organization. " CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT,A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS

14. Similarly in this category asks how was the experience of participating in the process, which provided 46% as good, 31% regular, and finally 23% as very good experience. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT,A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS

15. CONCLUSIONS From the results it was noted the valuable contribution of the participants, resulting from their past experience in accreditation. Confirming that the planning and design of a tool to measure, not a desk job outside their users, but a collaborative effort. Besides participants from their experience corroborated that the accreditation process can be streamlined and less time-consuming if you have the right tools. Similarly, the process to be perceived as laborious could be related to apathy and the frequent absence of other actors in the process. Finally, it was observed that in terms of continuous improvement in the function of raising the quality of education, there are still many flights of opportunity, wildlands that require the support and promotion of research in solving problems. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT,A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS

16. REFERENCES Chang, R.Y. (1996). Mejora continua de procesos. Retrievedfrom: http://books.google.com/books?id=k1cu60abh-cC&printsec=frontcover&hl=es&source=gbs_hp#v=onepage&q&f=false Durán, J.D. (2005). La dirección estratégica del capital humano con base en el conocimiento. Retrievedfrom: http://tdx.cat/bitstream/handle/10803/1479/3.TESIS_2.pdf?sequence=5 Hernández, S.R., Fernández, C.C., y Baptista, L.P. (2006). Metodología de la investigación. México: McGraw-Hill. UABC (2011). Misión-Visión. Retrievedfrom: http://www.uabc.mx/rectoria/mision-vision.htm THANKS CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT,A NECESSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION PROCESS