More attention to wicked problems in the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG).
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37870/joqie.v16i27.516Keywords:
European Standards and Guidelines, ESG, Higher Education, EHEA, Concept of the Four Quality Paradigms, Quality assurance, Complexity theory, Wicked ProblemsAbstract
This research was executed to gain a greater understanding of quality assurance in higher education. In Europe the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) are obligatory. The basic idea of the research was to see what other elements Quality Assurance Agencies (QAAs) incorporated into their external quality assurance (EQA) activities and to understand what these additions tell us about different visions of quality. The concept of visions of quality was operationalized by the Concept of the Four Quality Paradigms as introduced by Van Kemenade & Hardjono.
The results show a fit between the ESG and the additions made by the QAAs. There are no clear geographical patterns discernable for most additions or for their underlying quality visions. The results show that QAAs tend to make more additions that are capable of dealing with a context that is more on the side of wicked problems. The QAAs feeling the need to make these additions suggests that they think the ESG themselves are not fully adequate for dealing with this type of context. For this reason, this aspect should be included in current discussions around the upcoming revision of the ESG.
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