El aseguramiento de la calidad: un imperativo estratégico en la educación universitaria

Abstract

3 This involves a review of the core activities of a higher education institution, including qualitative and quantitative evidence of educational activities and products of scientific research. Therefore, quality assurance is a generic term used to describe a set of mechanisms that aim to control quality assurance and quality promotion; these mechanisms work in a wide variety of production contexts and organizations, including higher or tertiary education. In this framework, the quality assurance of an institution consists in provide assurance of compliance with acceptable thresholds, both in inputs and in processes and results. Has to be added to this conceptual notion the systematic concern about the preservation and improvement of the quality achieved, generating the cycles of continuous improvement. Thus, quality assurance is based on the policies, stances, actions and procedures needed to ensure that the quality in higher education institutions will be maintained and will be enhanced. Indeed, the quality assurance is the activity that achieves and maintains a satisfactory level in the organization's work. Such satisfactory threshold is achieved through different mechanisms and systems and, therefore, involves compliance and improving standards; in order to align the educational needs of students, employers and government entities. Although these requirements seem easily understandable and bearable, the truth is that the evidence shows that in different parts of the world the quality assurance is an important flaw in many higher education institutions. For example, in the Chilean case of the 55 autonomous universities in the country there are 43 who have accomplished to establish and prove the existence of policies and mechanisms for quality assurance, while the other 12 have failed to establish this minimum level of compliance 2. Certainly, there are a significant proportion of institutions of higher education that do not demonstrate a sufficient level of quality assurance. As a consequence, quality assurance is a strategic imperative for higher education institutions, because thus can respond to increased demand given by academically disadvantaged students; which often turn to new academic institutions with less experience in a context of asymmetric information, and in the frame of increasing internationalization which creates problems in the long term.