Quality, evaluation and accreditation: From steering, through compliance, on to enhancement and innovation?

Abstract

The chapter analyses the evolution of quality mechanisms in Portuguese higher education (HE). The first section reviews the legislative intent behind the 'quality' agenda. The second section covers the years 1994-2005. It examines two phases in the move to evaluate HE at first degree level, which ended however with the initiative being abruptly terminated. The third section examines recent developments from 2006 to the present. This third phase saw the publication of two reports: an OECD review of Portuguese HE (OECD, Reviews of national policies for education: tertiary education in Portugal, OECD, Paris, 2007) and another on quality assurance (ENQA, ENQA occasional paper 10, ENQA, Helsinki 2006), which coincided with closing down of the previous evaluation system. Major changes in the interests represented were introduced. Previously, the evaluation system lay in the hands of groups representing institutions of HE. Its successor, which included accreditation, was vested in an independent agency, with both government and higher education representatives. The fourth section muses on the possible outcomes the new evaluative regime may engender. Will its influence be more positive? Or will it, on the contrary, become inquisitorial?