Prof. György BAZSA, President Hungarian Accreditation Committee (HAC)

Hungarian Accreditation Committee – past, present and future Prof. György BAZSA, President Hungarian Accreditation Committee (HAC) From Quality Assurance to Quality Culture HEA Regional ConferenceSarajevo, 6 October, 2011

Why accreditation? • First half of 20th century in US: protection of good reputation, diplomas and interest of excellent HE institutions against low level education and degrees. • Second half of 20th century: increasing importance of quality, therefore developing systematic quality assurance systems and quality culture. • In higher education: to ensure and improve quality of education and training in interest of all stakeholders (students, labor market, government). • For (the knowledge based) society: declaring safe-guarded and evaluated quality of programs and/or HE institutions, transparency, informing the public.

Hungarian Higher Education (HHE) HE enrollment: before 1990 < 10% of age group at present ~ 38 % of age group HE students total: ~ 380.000 (half state funded) Legal background: Act on HE 1993 and 2005 new law in 2012 (draft) HE institutions: ~7 HEI / 1 million people

System of training programs Before 2005: parallel system of programs - college (practice oriented), 3-4 y. - university (research oriented), 5-6 y. Since 2005 (sequence of 3 cycles; Bologna system): - Bachelor – 180/210 credits, 3-3,5 y. - Master – 90/120 credits, 2 y - long masters: 300 credits (med, law) - PhD – 180 credits, 3+ years Compulsory general changeover started in 2006. This burdened HHE and HAC enormously in recent years. Dr. univ. has a long tradition in Hungary. The present PhD form exists since 1993 at universities.

Actors and factors in (Hungarian) HE Quality a) Government: HE Q policy, legal and financial conds. b) HAC:external Q Evaluation and Accreditation c) HEIs: key performers in quality of the „product”, responsible for internal Q Assurance d) Faculty: determinesQ of teaching and research e) Students: acceptandreflect to Qofteaching f) Labor market: confirms/questions Q of HE graduates g) Media: reports Q and prepares HE ranking h) Europe: Bologna, EHEA, ESG, ENQA: public Q + international Q labels + US NCFMEA

a)Government (Minister): • QA and accreditation is part of state HE policy • Hungary signed Bologna declaration • QUALITY AWARD for HEI QA activity • After strong expansion (fourfold increase in student number in a decade) the main focus now: quality! • Impact • Hungarian HE community accepts the need and benefit of QA and accreditation. • HEIs run QA systems and processes ordered by law. • State financing is not connected to QA and Accred. • Quality issue in general is now a common concern of the society.

a)Government (Minister): • QA and accreditation is part of state HE policy. • Hungary signed Bologna declaration • QUALITY AWARD for HEI QA activity • After strong expansion (fourfold increase in student number in a decade) the main issue is now: quality! • Impact • Hungarian HE community accepts the need and benefit of QA and accreditation. • HEIs run QA systems and processes ordered by law. • State financing is not connected to QA and Accred. • Quality issue in general is now a common concern of the society.

b)HAC1 • Independent, mainly academic board, funded by Parliament (stakeholders spots). • 19 members (formally appointed by PM), majority delegated by Rector’s Conference and HAS; secretly elected president, committees, for 3+3 years. • Its resolutions are „expert opinions”, legal decisions become effective through minister(ial organs). • There is an independent HAC appeal board. • HAC is a European QA player, charter member of ENQA (European Association for QA in HE), its membership affirmed twice by external reviews. • HAC accepted and applies ESG in all respects.

b)HAC1 • Independent, mainly academic board, funded by Parliament(stakeholders spots). • 12 members (formally appointed by PM), 6 delega-ted by the minister, 3 HRC, 2 HAS, 1 NCD; presi-dent selected by the minister, committees, for 6+6 years. • „Expert opinions” requested by the minister, decisions will be effective through ministerial organ. • There is an independent HAC appeal board. • HAC is a European QA player, charter member of ENQA (European Association for QA in HE), its membership affirmed twice with external reviews. • HAC accepted and applies ESG in all respects.

HAC2 • HAC is the only accreditation body in Hungarian HE, all HEIs have to apply to HAC for external QA and accreditation. • HAC has a permanent secretariat (8 + 7 staff) • a database of ~1200 experts (acutally trained) • HAC introduced HE EXCELLENCE AWARDS • HAC has functions in external and in internal QA. • HAC sets public conditions and quality norms in evaluation and accreditation. • HAC activity and decisions are public: • http://www.mab.hu

HAC2 • HAC is the only accreditation body in Hungarian HE, all HEIs have to apply for external QA and accreditation in different affairs. • HAC has a permanent secretariat (8 + 7) • a database of ~ 1200 experts (actually trained) • HAC introduced HE EXCELLENCE AWARDS • HAC has functions in external and in internal QA. • HAC sets public conditions and quality norms in evaluation and accreditation. • HAC activity and decisions are public: • http://www.mab.hu

HAC3 • HAC is strengthening its international relations and actions in QA activity permanently with different actions and co-operations. HAC has an active International Advisory Board. • HAC has to move from evaluation of inputs to outputs. (Note! Filtering out a program at start is less painful than exclusion during the process.) • HAC wishes that institutions show their values and results at accreditation instead of fearing a critical evaluation. More self-esteem is needed, if it’s well founded! • HAC has its own Self-Assessment mechanisms. • HAC needs to increase its publicity.

HAC3 • HAC is strengthening its international relations and actions in QA activity permanently with different actions and co-operations. HAC has an active International Advisory Board. • HAC has to move from input to output evaluation. (Note! Filtering out a program at input is less painful than exclusion during the process.) • HAC wishes that institutions show their values and results at accreditation instead of fearing a critical evaluation. More self-esteem is needed, if it’s well founded! • HAC has its own Self-Assessment mechanism. • HAC has to increase its publicity.

System of HAC activities(external QA)

HAC past activities in figures

Processes(standards are published in advance): • Ex ante accreditations(input conditions): in 90 days • written proposal submitted • 2 HAC expert reviews (anonymous) → • disciplinary committees’ proposal (15 members) → • resolution of HAC plenum • Ex post accreditation(during operation): in 1 year • self-evaluation report (including C-SWOT) → • site visit by a visiting team (HAC experts, incl. student, stakeholder, QA specialist) → • draft of the accr. report of the visiting team → • comments from the HEI → • resolution of HAC plenum

A unique system:parallel accreditation of all doctoral schools (PhD programs) in Hungary. • a full, live, open access electronic database, cove- ring all 26 universities +1 college: www.doktori.hu. (Information for students!) • ex ante and ex post evaluation of ~200 doctoral schools, the 3rd cycle of Bologna system, including • documents of functions, teaching and research plans, coherency, programs of QA, • websites, • ~2200 core members evaluated individually by qualification, performance and relevance to the respective school. This mirrors the quality of scientific output of HEI.

Impact of HAC on HEIs • HEIs consider the quality norms and consequences of external evaluation in all issues : applications are often prepared carefully; exceptions~25%. • HAC conditions and norms are the same for all – state and non-state (but state recognized) – HEIs. • HAC has high quality norms in order to compensate the expansive ambitions of HEIs (state financing follows student number, not quality). • HAC evaluations result in requests and advice for QA systems and management of HEIs. • HAC as a strong quality safeguard reduces the responsibility of HEIs: HAC whishes to change it!

c)HEI quality management1 – 2 documents • HE Act: „The HEI operates an internal QA system. • The HEI prepares a quality development program. • It specifies the process of operation, like the execu-tionofmanagement, planning, control, measurement, assessment, and consumer protection related tasks • regulates the rules pertaining to the evaluation oflecturer performance by the students. • The HEI annually revises the implementation of theprogram and • publishes its findings on the website.” • QA systems are developed, programs start formally.

c)HEI quality management1 – 2 documents • HE Act: „The HEI operates an internal QA system. • The HEI prepares a quality development program. • It specifies the process of operation, like the execu-tionofmanagement, planning, control, measurement,assessment, and consumer protection related tasks, • regulates the rules pertaining to the evaluation oflecturer performance by the students. • The HEI annually revises the implementation of theprogram and • publishes its findings on the website.” • QA systems are developed, programs start formally.

HEA’s question: • Secretariat manages (organizes) the process of accreditation (logistics, printed and e-reports, visits). • HAC secretariat has 15 permanent members (8 professional and 7 administrative). • Independent expert members of the visiting panels are selected by HAC plenum from a large database. • Reports are written by the visiting panel. • HAC delivers draft of the reports to the HEI on comments before accepting the final version. • Compulsory accreditation is financed by the state in the HAC’s budget

Evaluation of HEI’s proposal is financed by the HEI (fee is set by the government). • HAC has web-published criteria as a base for accreditation of all courses and programs. • Average period for one institutional and parallel program accreditation is about one year. • HAC conducts accreditation of the third cycle; e-databese: www.doktori.hu

QA vs. QP: QA isn’t an art for art sake: the main aim of QA is good Quality Product: - high class graduates, - excellent science and innovation, - efficient local/social services.

Thank you for the invitation and • for your kind attention!

Prof. György BAZSA, President Hungarian Accreditation Committee (HAC)