Comparative analysis of the impact of university accreditation processes on the organisation and management of undergraduate degrees

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. Quality is a key issue in the European Higher Education Area. Thus, universities have implemented Internal Quality Assurance Systems, among which the accreditation processes, that try to verify if the degrees are developed in accordance with the established standards, can be found. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the impact that accreditation processes in the Organisation and Management of Bachelor's degrees have, based on the assessments of different audiences (quality managers, management teams, administrative and service staff, students and lecturers). METHOD. A descriptive and comparative non-experimental quantitative study was carried out. Data collection was carried out by means of a questionnaire of 46 items designed ad hoc (measured on a Likert scale from 0 to 4 points) which achieved a very high internal consistency (Cronbach's α of .984). The sample consisted of 1964 subjects from 13 Spanish public and private universities. RESULTS. The overall average score of the impact of the accreditation processes on the Organisation and Management of the degrees was 100 (on a scale of 184 points) and the analysis of the items reached averages between 1.13 and 2.75 (on a maximum scale of 4 points). The comparative studies carried out showed differences according to the group to which they belonged in 5 out of 8 assessed dimensions. DISCUSSION. In general, the scores obtained suggest that the improvement impact of the accreditation processes in the Organisation and Management of Bachelor's degrees was perceived as medium, with the group of students being the most critical in their assessments, while the members of the management teams and those responsible for quality assurance were the ones who rated the level of impact with the highest scores.