Impact evaluation of quality assurance in higher education: Methodology and causal designs

摘要

There are several procedures and instruments of quality assurance (QA) in higher education. However, a comprehensive and empirically reliable knowledge about the effects and mechanisms of action of QA measures in higher education is still lacking. The incompleteness is especially found in three areas namely> The field of measuring the effects of QA in higher education,> The spectrum of possible methodologies for impact analysis in higher education, and> The experience of various stakeholders of higher education institutions, among them students and teachers has not been captured. The present study has tried to fill the above mentioned gaps by examining the causality in higher education institutions. It has also tried to focus on general methodological principles and challenges and examine some of the basic methodological designs of impact evaluation in complex and dynamic social systems. Further, few basic options of causal designs, in particular causal social mechanisms, for impact analyses of QA in higher education institution have been discussed. A questionnaire for survey has been developed for the same and the article concludes with some prospective conclusions and recommendations for the practice of QA in higher education institutions and QA agencies. (46 refs.)