QUALITY CRITERIA IN UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

The increase in the number of universities in all countries in recent years has necessitated a rethinking of the criteria for evaluating education. It is important to keep in mind that no single indicator can capture all the factors that contribute to the quality of a university and different institutions may prioritize different factors depending on their strengths and objectives. It is important to note that university quality is a multifaceted concept and cannot be assessed based on only one indicator. A comprehensive assessment of a university's quality may require consideration of multiple indicators and contextual factors in order to get a holistic picture of its overall performance. Creative and innovative thinking is at the heart of this. As a result, many different criteria emerge. Quality is undoubtedly the first criterion that comes to mind. There have been great developments in this regard in Turkey. Every institution has started to create strategic plans targeting quality. In this sense, the Higher Education Council in Turkey has taken a new step in higher education with YÖKAK (Higher Education Quality Authority). Now, all universities are subjected to external evaluation, monitoring and accreditation by preparing KIDR (Internal Evaluation Report). It is observed that this is a great quality move for our country. In this sense, YÖKAK is making efforts to realize the desired quality indicators in universities not only on a formal basis but also on the basis of practice. In this sense, YÖKAK has been working on 4 basic issues (Leadership, Governance, Quality-Education,Teaching-Education,Teaching-Research Development-Social Contribution) which are addressed in quality in all universities. A systematic structure has been established to monitor quality. Each university now has a Quality main heading on its web pages, and the studies carried out are explained to the society. Of course, these studies find an increasing place not only on the web page but also in the application areas. In this study, quality criteria in Turkish universities are explained in a basic sense and suggestions are given about what needs to be done.