cre The Pow er of Accreditation: view s of academ ics Professor Lee Harvey Centre for Research and Evaluation Sheffield Hallam University, UK lee.harvey@shu.ac.uk ENQA W orkshop Rom e Nov 2 0 0 3
cre Overview • Accreditation • View s of academ ics • Conclusion
cre I ntroduction • The paper draw s on m any years’ experience of analysing external evaluations of quality and standards. • NB: Quality and standards are not the sam e thing. • The paper w ill draw on UK and North Am erican view s of accreditation.
cre Political • Underpinning view : Europe is rushing precipitously into accreditation. • Approach is based on naïve view s of accreditation. • Unspecified and unexam ined set of taken-for-granteds that legitim ate accreditation. • Accreditation is highly political and is fundam entally about a shift of pow er concealed behind a npm ideology, cloaked in consum erist dem and and European conform ity.
cre Accreditation • A public statem ent that a certain threshold of quality has been achieved or surpassed. • Decisions should be based on transparent agreed, pre-defined standards or criteria. • Accreditation is a binary state. But there is often a provisional status.
cre Accreditation types • I nstitutional accreditation – Licence to operate • Program m e accreditation – Professional accreditation: com petence to practice. Long-term in UK and US – Accredited for their academ ic standing: new er accreditation in Eastern European countries such as Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia and the new W estern European approaches to b-m
cre Process ‘ W e w ill have a subject accreditation visit every w eek. W e have a perm anent office to co-ordinate these visits. I t is going to be very costly. The accreditation w ill last eight years and then w e are supposed to go through the w hole cycle again. How ever, w e expect the m ethodology w ill only last ’ one cycle. ( Com m ent on the new Flem ish system )
cre External evaluation accreditation audit assessm ent external ex Approach Object program m e learner output provider govern- curriculum learning m edium of student anace & design experience delivery support Focus regulation content of organis- financial qualifi- adm in program - ational viability cation support m es processes accountability control com pliance im provem ent Rationale Self- PI s peer visit inspection assessm ent Methods docum ent stakeholder direct proxy analysis surveys intervention delegate
cre External evaluation accreditation audit assessm ent external ex Approach Object provider program m e learner output govern- curriculum learning m edium of student anace & design experience delivery support Focus regulation content of organis- financial qualifi- adm in program - ational viability cation support m es processes accountability control com pliance im provem ent Rationale Self- PI s peer visit inspection assessm ent Methods docum ent stakeholder direct proxy analysis surveys intervention dlegate
cre External evaluation accreditation audit assessm ent external ex Approach Object provider program m e learner output govern- curriculum learning m edium of student anace & design experience delivery support Focus regulation content of organis- financial qualifi- adm in program - ational viability cation support m es processes accountability control com pliance im provem ent Rationale Self- PI s peer visit inspection assessm ent Methods docum ent stakeholder direct proxy analysis surveys intervention dlegate
cre Nuances of accreditation 1 . accreditation as a process applied to applicant organisations. 2 . accreditation is the label that institutions or program m es m ay acquire as a result of the accreditation procedures. 3 . underpinning the first tw o, accreditation is an ‘ abstract notion of a form al authorising pow er’ ( Haakstad, 2 0 0 1 , p. 7 7 )
cre Abstraction • The underpinning abstraction gives accreditation its legitim acy. • The abstraction, frequently taken- for-granted, traditionally is not an intrinsic aspect of accreditation. – ‘The original audience for accreditation [ in the US] w as the academ y itself. The process did not arise in response to concerns about quality expressed by external audiences….’ ( Jones, 2 0 0 2 , p.1 )
cre Professional and regulatory bodies PRBs play three roles ( Harvey & Mason, 1 9 9 5 ) . 1 . They are set up to safeguard the public interest. 2 . Som e professional bodies also represent the interest of the professional practitioners 3 . They represents their ow n self- interest.
cre View s of academ ics
cre Respondent sam ple • Literature ( m eagre) View s of 5 3 academ ics w ho have • been involved in accreditation ( UK and North Am erica) • e-m ail survey • m ost com m ent on subject accreditation • relate to 2 4 different disciplines • quotes ( sem iological analysis in the paper) .
cre Necessity • Professional accreditation w as either necessary for professional em ploym ent or enhanced the job prospects of their graduates. • How ever, this necessity w as closely linked to the m arketability of program m es and a concern that failure to achieve accreditation w ould be problem atic. • For som e, accreditation w as som ething that attracted better students.
cre Better students ‘ The recognition elem ent can be substantial, both in term s of institutional internal recognition ( = if accredited, m ust be good, so w e’ll support it) but especially in attracting increasingly capable students from a w ider pool of applicants. W e see that gradual developm ent in our program s. Som etim es, it is sim ply essential for your students to be able to enter the field being prepared for w ithout extra hurdles. ( R4 6 , Canada, psychology) ’
cre External objectivity The assum ption is that there is an objective external view that is the province of the external accrediting body. The ‘objectivity’, though, m ay be tem pered by the controlling function of the organisation, itself possibly a function of its ow n self-interest.
cre Uniform ity A significant and often repeated rationale for accreditation in som e areas is uniform ity across the sector. ‘My personal view is that it is a valuable process in that it m eans that to som e degree a psychology degree m eans roughly the sam e thing across the sector. Psychology is a broad field — w ithout accreditation it is likely that m any institutions w ould have addressed only selected aspects of the field.’ ( R1 7 , UK, psychology)
cre Uniform ity The presum ption is that uniform ity is desirable and thus that all courses should ‘cover’ the sam e content. This assum es that covering the sam e I t is about com plying/ m easuring up to course content equates w ith uniform ity external requirem ents ( in term s of coverage of learning and understanding of the and resources) . subject area. ( R1 7 , UK, psychology ) But is the dem and for uniform ity the professional body safeguarding the public, representing its m em bers’ interests or reinforcing its ow n status?
cre External guiding hand The assum ption is that there is an external guiding hand that know s w hat’s best and that academ ia has to conform to it. An alternative view is less benign.
cre Pow er ‘ Som etim es it seem s to be about how pow erful the agencies are — the professional body or the institution and I ’ve had experience of it going both w ays…. I n relation to psychology, it initially resulted in inflexibility in relation to residential schools — m andatory to get a nam ed degree and this disadvantaged w om en w ith childcare needs. W e then renegotiated after m uch feedback and because student voted w ith their feet ( didn’t sign up) and w e then found m oney to provide an alternative, ’ and an on-line experience w as developed. ( R8 , UK, psychology)
cre Pow er I s this safeguarding the public or is this inflexibility born of the society Tony Gale ( 2 0 0 2 ) , ex- Honorary General invoking its public security m ission to Secretary of the British Psychology Society reinforce its political pow er and ( BPS) , argues that, given that a first degree in om niscience? psychology does not give you a licence to practice, the society accredits undergraduate courses for political reasons, w hich have little W hat w ould it m atter if undergraduate to do w ith public security or pedagogy. psychology students on different degree courses took different syllabuses taught in different w ays?
cre Academ ic or practitioner This leads to the relative influence of academ ics and practitioners in each other’s realm s. ‘ There is often a clear tension betw een academ ic priorities and professional ones in say engineering or social w ork’ ( R3 0 , UK, general)
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