Quality Assurance of study programmes in Higher Education

1. Quality Assurance of study programmes in Higher Education Berit Eika, professor, MD, PhD, MI, MHPE Centre of Medical Education Aarhus University

2. financial expert good practice reflective person good attitude has life experience know’s much good team worker empathic person communicates well skills good problem-solver What is a good doctor?

3. Quality Assurance: Internal vs. External • Quality assurance serves two main purposes: • enhancement • accountability. • Internal quality assurance naturally focuses on the enhancement of quality in teaching and learning, while • External quality assurance, at its best, both serves the needs for accountability of institutions to stakeholders and the wider public and plays a developmental role for enhancing quality in institutions. ENQA statement on the European Commission’s Report on Progress in Quality Assurance, 2010

4. QUALITY ? ASSURANCE EXTERNAL INTERNAL DEVELOPMENT CONTROL CRITERIA PREREQISITS EXPERTS PEERS

5. QUALITY What is quality? • Quality as something exceptional • Recruitment of the best and brightest students and faculty • Quality as “Value for money” • Low drop out, quick accomplishment, high employability • Quality as customer satisfaction • Student satisfaction, alumni satisfaction • Quality as meeting standards • Teacher-student ratio, research-based education as number of publications • Quality as transformation • Products of students learning (progress test)

6. QUALITY QUALITY ? ? ASSURANCE ASSURANCE Quality assurance requires a multi-dimensional approach

7. Summary • We want quality but may not have the same understanding of what ”quality” is • We need a multi-dimensional, professional approach to quality assurance • There must be a good balance between: • Internal and external quality assurance • Development and accountability • Involvement of experts and peers • Costs and outcomes • We should be aware of – and avoid – side effects, such as: • Lack of commitment • Lip service