Internal quality assurance systems: “tailor made” or “one size fits all” implementation?
| Pages | 329-342 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-03-2017-0007 |
| Published date | 03 July 2017 |
| Date | 03 July 2017 |
| Author | Sónia Cardoso,Maria J. Rosa,Pedro Videira,Alberto Amaral |
| Subject Matter | Education,Curriculum, instruction & assessment,Educational evaluation/assessment |
Internal quality assurance
systems: “tailor made” or “one
size ts all” implementation?
Sónia Cardoso
CIPES – Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies, Portugal and
A3ES – Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education, Portugal
Maria J. Rosa
CIPES – Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies, Portugal and
DEGEIT, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
Pedro Videira
CIPES – Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies, Portugal, and
Alberto Amaral
CIPES – Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies, Portugal and
A3ES – Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education, Portugal
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to look at the characteristics of internal quality assurance (IQA) systems of
higher education institutions to understand whether these systems tend to reproduce a given model,
externally dened and suggested to institutions, or rather to be shaped by institutions’ features and interests.
Design/methodology/approach –The study is supported in the analysis of the content of
self-assessment reports of 12 internal QA systems certied, in Portugal, between 2012 and 2015. An analysis
grid was used based on three categories: IQA systems’ historical framework, structural/managerial
component and monitoring, assessment and continuous improvement.
Findings –Institutions tended to follow a “one size ts all” approach, meaning that external (European and
national) quality assurance (QA) references were used in an identical way, giving origin to rather similar IQA
systems. Institutional characteristics do not seem to have played a relevant role, eventually due to institutions’
will to obtain their systems’ certication and, thus, achieve a light-touch external QA.
Research limitations/implications –The study was based on the analysis of only certied IQA
systems and relies on document analysis. It would be interesting to also include non-certied systems, in a
comparative perspective, complemented with data deriving from interviews and/or questionnaires with some
of the actors involved in the certication process.
Practical implications –The study provides an understanding of how IQA systems are being
implemented in Portugal. Thus, it can be of interest to other institutions as well as to QA agencies.
Originality/value –The study addresses a topic still relatively absent from research on QA in higher
education, being of interest for researchers in the eld.
Keywords Portugal, Quality, Quality assurance, Higher education institutions,
Internal quality assurance systems
Paper type Research paper
This work has been supported by the FCT under the project PEst-OE/CED/UI0757/2011 (which is
funded by the Programme COMPETE) and grant EXCL/IVC-PEC/0789/2012-GLONATINS-Global
Challenges, National Initiatives, and Institutional Responses-Mapping the Transformation of
Portuguese Higher Education Institutions at the Dawn of the Twentieth-First Century.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0968-4883.htm
Internal
quality
assurance
systems
329
Received 21 March 2017
Revised 20 April 2017
Accepted 8 May 2017
QualityAssurance in Education
Vol.25 No. 3, 2017
pp.329-342
©Emerald Publishing Limited
0968-4883
DOI 10.1108/QAE-03-2017-0007
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