Relaunching National Evaluation and Quality Assurance: Expectations and Preparations

Christina Segerholm

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-21143-1_8

Abstract

AbstractIn this chapter, we describe and analyse the design of the evaluation and quality assurance system decided by the Swedish Parliament in 2016. Particular stress is put on how one part of this system – the institutional reviews of the higher education institutions’ internal quality assurance processes – was set up by the Swedish Higher Education Authority (SHEA). The aim was to explore governing of higher education in the signals expressed through the design and requirements decided by the SHEA. The SHEA public reports, guidelines, criteria, and templates for the higher education institutions and evaluators, and interviews with SHEA staff were used for this purpose. The analysis shows that the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area were important influences in the design work. It also shows that the design supports the governing by objectives and outcomes logic and a notion of “quality” in higher education as equivalent to work with internal quality assurance systems at higher education institutions. We argue that this design forms the basis for constitutive effects like an instrumental notion of higher education.

Highlights

Throughout the book, we have described and analysed the emergence of evaluation and quality assurance in the Swedish higher education system, with particular emphasis on the most recent developments
We describe this 2016 national evaluation and quality assurance (EQA) system and pay particular attention to one component, institutional reviews of higher education institutions’ internal quality assurance (IQA) systems
We argue that the designs of national EQA systems direct attention to different parts of the higher education institutions (HEI)’ activities and organisations, and as such, designs are part of governing higher education

Summary

Introduction

Throughout the book, we have described and analysed the emergence of evaluation and quality assurance in the Swedish higher education system, with particular emphasis on the most recent developments. Later, when the parliament decided on the new system from spring 2016, the SHEA intensified its design work During this period of reform interval, higher education institutions were occupied with creating and improving internal quality assurance systems that should match requirements not yet decided, as described in the chapter “Enacting a National Reform Interval in Times of Uncertainty: Evaluation Gluttony Among the Willing”. According to the SHEA staff, it was crucial in their work to know about the Swedish higher education system, to have an academic degree in any subject, and to be socially competent and able to lead an external panel in their assessment work They have opportunities to continuously develop their knowledge in evaluation – about quality assurance – by attending international conferences, most often in the Nordic and European countries. In October 2016, the SHEA estimated the following numbers of the different types of evaluations during 2016–2022: approximately 20 appraisals of applications for degree-awarding powers, 46 institutional reviews, 650 programme evaluations, and 2–3 thematic evaluations (SHEA n.d.)

Comments on the Design Work of the EQA System

Comments on the Design Work of the Institutional Reviews

Discussion