Maturity Level of the Quality Assurance Evaluation Procedures in Higher Education: A qualitative research

Abstract

The establishment of mature operational procedures to support the educational process and the attempt to standardize and certificate these procedures is a very arduous and a demanding task that requires ensuring conditions in several levels of government. At the same time, according to the latest requirements of HQAA (Hellenic Quality Assurance & Accreditation Agency) regarding the certification of study programs and the gradual establishment of quality assurance mechanisms, it is a necessity for all educational institutions to establish such operational procedures. Standardization of procedures and effective change management are the critical issues. In this work we measured the maturity level of the current evaluation processes in an advanced academic department of a HEI (Higher Education Institute) as well as of the new procedures proposed by HQAA for the Certification of Curricula and of the establishment of a Quality Assurance System (QAS). Based on the results of our research it is possible to draw conclusions about the feasibility of implementing the new required procedures and the degree of difficulty of their application and exploitation. At the same time, an assessment of the level of process maturity in the academic department is possible, using Capability Maturity Models. At the end of this work we present a road map for the development of a QAS for a HEI.