UNESCOCEPES 10 September 2002

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• UNESCO-CEPES
  10 September 2002
• Kauko Hämäläinen, Kirsi Mustonen and Karl Holm
• Standards, Criteria and Indicators in Programme
  Accreditation and Evaluation in Western Europe.
•  This is a working paper written for the
  UNESCO-CEPES project "Strategic indicators for
  higher education in the twenty-first century".
•  1. The purpose of the paper
•  UNESCO-CEPES has launched a project on
  Indicators for Institutional and Programme
  Accreditation in Higher/Tertiary Education, which
  is a part of the Project on Strategic Indicators.
  UNESCO-CEPES has initiated a Working Group that
  is expected e.g. to provide a survey of the
  existing sets of standards and indicators used in
  the process of institutional and programme
  accreditation.
• The principal consideration of the project has
  been an undertaking of a thorough analysis of
  currently used statistical indicators to be
  followed by a formulation of modifications of
  indicators, or even new indicators which should
  lead to improvement of quantitative assessment of
  higher education at both system and institutional
  levels. According to the project outline, the
  obtained information on indicators will be used
  to assess the state of a higher education system
  on a specific issue.
• This report is based on documents describing the
  standards, criteria and indicators used in
  programme accreditation, evaluation and quality
  assurance in different Western European
  countries. Different kinds of material and
  arrangements are analysed reports by national
  authorities of accreditation and quality
  assurance as well as reports by professional
  associations, associations of institutions and
  private organisations.
•  
• This project concentrates on currently used
  standards, criteria and indicators. At this stage
  both statistical and qualitative material have
  been collected. The possible changes in the
  construction of existing indicators from input
  indicators to output indicators are also
  analysed.
• In the following some central concepts are
  defined. First of all it is good to have a clear
  understanding, what the concept "accreditation"
  means and why it is implemented in many European
  countries. It is also interesting to analyse the
  concepts like standards and criteria, because the
  use of these words seems to be quite confusing.
  Then some kind of framework for evaluations and
  accreditation is described. At the end of the
  article there are some comments, analysis and
  recommendations about the current situation.

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FRAMEWORK OF PROGRAMME ACCREDITATION AND QUALITY
ASSURANCE IN WESTERN EUROPE
FINHEEC K.Hämäläinen, K.Holm, K.Mustonen
PROGRAMME
RESULTS
RESOURCES
- CONTENT OF CURRICULUM
- ACHIEVED OBJECTIVES
- STAFF
- CURRICULUM DESIGN
- STUDENT FLOWS
OBJECTIVES
- STUDENTS
- TEACHING AND LEARNING
- LENGTH OF STUDY
- MANAGEMENT
- CONNECTIONS TO RESEARCH
- GRADUATE PLACEMENT
- FACILITIES
- GUIDANCE AND COUNCELLING
- REGIONAL IMPACT
- PRACTICAL TRAINING
- FINANCING
- CONNECTIONS TO WORKING LIFE
- INTERNATIONALISATION
- EXAMS AND FINAL THESIS
INTERNAL QUALITY ASSURANCE
- FEEDBACK / STUDENTS, STAFF, ALUMNI, EMPLOYMENT
MARKET, SOCIETY
- QUALITY MANAGEMENT / QUALITY ASSURANCE MECHANISM
NATIONAL
REGIONAL
INTERNATIONAL