22 November 2012 | EQAF Paper

Transitional evaluation: a special case of external evaluation of higher education in Estonia 2009-2011

Hillar Bauman, Heli Mattisen

Foreword

In this paper, you will find a summary by the Estonian Higher Education Quality Agency (Eesti Kõrghariduse Kvaliteediagentuur; EKKA) of an atypical quality assessment in Estonian higher education, the so-called transitional evaluation that took place during the transition from one system of external assessment of quality to another.


Compared to traditional external assessment of quality in Estonia (and also elsewhere in the world), transitional evaluation had four substantial differences:

1) higher education institutions did not submit self-evaluation reports; the evaluation was based on written data submitted by higher education institutions, background information at the Ministry of Education and Research, and additional data gathered during assessment visits;
2) assessment committees were comprised of local experts only;
3) the decision was made not on a study programme, but on the entire study programme group;
4) some decisions were made without an assessment visit, solely on the basis of written data.

 

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

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