Additions to the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG) and their Underlying Visions of Quality

Not the implementation of the obligatory ESG by quality assurance agencies (QAAs) was looked at, but what other elements these QAAs incorporated into external quality assurance (EQA) activities was examined. Moreover, what these additions say about different visions of quality was studied. The main research question was - What vision(s) of quality appear(s) from the additions to the ESG, made by QAAs in their EQA activities of higher education, how widely is/are this/these vision(s) spread and how well do they fit to the ESG and its underlying vision of quality? The concept of visions of quality was operationalized by the Concept of the Four Quality Paradigms (Van Kemenade & Hardjono,2019). The paradigms in quality management are the empirical paradigm, the reference paradigm, the reflective paradigm and the emergence paradigm. These paradigms, in this order, are thought to be able to accommodate contexts ranging from tame to wicked (Rittel & Webber, 1973). A combination of desk research, questionnaires and expert interviews was used to gather data. The results show a fairly close fit between the ESG and the additions made by the QAAs to them. The deviation that is visible between underlying visions of quality of the ESG and the additions made by the QAAs, is a very interesting one that seems to be relevant to developments in higher education. QAAs tend to make more additions that are capable of dealing with contexts that are more wicked. That QAAs feel the need to make this additions suggests that the ESG themselves are not fully adequate for dealing with this type of contexts. For this reason, it is advised that this aspect will be included in the current discussions around the upcoming revision of the ESG.

This paper was presented at EQAF and reflects the views of the named authors only.

ISSN: 1375-3797

Additions to the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG) and their Underlying Visions of Quality

Eltjo Bazen

Download