A Self-assessment of Higher Education Institutions from the Perspective of the EFQM Excellence Model

Abstract

Fifteen years ago Peter Drucker (cited in Massy 2003) predicted that “universities will be relics in 30 years”. Although Drucker may have overstated the case, the fact is that nowadays higher education can no longer take its values and privileges for granted (Massy 2003). For Amaral, Magalhães, and Santiago (2003: 131), higher education is being exposed to the influence of significant external pressures that result from the “convergent effects of financial restrictions … rising expectations and social demand, mandates of the new economy and a weakening of its symbolic capital”. Santos (1996) argues that the university today lives a triple crisis: loss of its social legitimacy and of its hegemony relative to knowledge production, as well as an institutional crisis. Massy (2003) has labelled this situation “the Erosion of Trust”, stating that “settling for good enough erodes the public’s trust in higher education and puts institutions and faculty at risk” (Massy 2003: 3).