Assessing the assessors: a comparative study
| Pages | 205-211 |
| Published date | 01 December 1998 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09684889810242191 |
| Date | 01 December 1998 |
| Author | Bjørn Stensaker |
Introduction
As in most other western European countries,
quality assurance and evaluation of higher
education institutions have been frequently
discussed topics on the public policy agenda
in Norway during the 1990s. The state-owned
and traditionally centrally-steered higher
education system in Norway experienced in
this period a large influx of students in higher
education institutions at the same time as
public budgets, in general, tightened. In
addition, the higher education system was
exposed to several important reforms in which
decentralisation of power from the state to
higher education institutions was emphasised,
managerial reforms within higher education
institutions introduced, and better co-opera-
tion between the university and college sec-
tors encouraged.
In 1992, and as a part of this development,
the Ministry of Education launched a national
evaluation programme for improving the
quality of specific disciplines in higher educa-
tion. The programme was scheduled for five
years and ended in 1996. The intentions
behind the programme were to support
autonomy and self-regulation in higher educa-
tion institutions, but also that the evaluations
should give national authorities information
on whether institutions took responsibility for
their increased autonomy. One may therefore
say that the national evaluation programme
had several characteristics of the classical
improvement-accountability dilemma
(Vroeijenstijn, 1995). To handle this dilem-
ma, but also to improve the methodological
foundations of evaluations in general, numer-
ous handbooks and manuals describing how a
quality assessment or a quality audit should
be carried out have therefore been developed
in several countries (HEQC, 1996; Kells and
Stenquist, 1995; National Agency for Higher
Education, 1996; Vroeijenstijn, 1995; Wood-
house, 1995; ).
Regarding the use of external assessment
panels in an evaluation, the careful nomina-
tion and selection of people, often combined
with training sessions before the process
starts, are especially highlighted as important,
and it is believed that a well-composed, unbi-
ased, professional assessment panel plays a
205
Quality Assurance in Education
Volume 6 · Number 4 · 1998 · pp. 205–211
© MCB University Press · ISSN 0968-4883
Assessing the
assessors: a
comparative study
Bjørn Stensaker
The author
Bjørn Stensaker is a Researcher at NIFU (Norwegian
Institute for Studies in Research and Higher Education),
Hegdehaugsveien, Oslo, Norway.
Abstract
In a national quality assessment of business administra-
tion in Norway, the work of eight simultaneously working
external assessment panels was studied. The article
examines how the panels considered different kinds of
information sources and processes during the assessment,
and in writing their reports. The study shows that informa-
tion from self-evaluation reports and instructional check-
lists, from an arranged conference and a training seminar,
was ranked low by the panels, while information from the
interaction between the panels and the assessed depart-
ment and/or institution was highly valued together with
internal discussions inside the panels and the assessors’
own knowledge and experience. In writing their external
reports, the information highly valued was used most by
the assessors. Possible implications of the study, especially
in relation to the organisation and set-up of external
assessments, are presented in the conclusion.
The author is indebted to Sue Ellen Walters for
assistance in preparing the English version of this
article.
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