Developing higher education institutions as effective learning communities: Approaches, practices and policy levers at one Portuguese university

Abstract

In Europe, when speaking of quality assurance of Higher Education Institutions (HEI), the point of reference is the Standard and guidelines for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area document, devised by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. This document establishes a set of guidelines for the Internal Systems of Quality Assurance (ISQA) of the HEI and, also includes, guidelines for the creation of quality assurance agencies, such as the Portuguese Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES), Agency which establish standards, evaluate and ensure the quality of the HEI in the different member countries of the Higher Education European Space. In Portugal, the A3ES created a Manual for the ISQA audit process which specifies the objectives, the form of organization and operation of the institutional audit model adopted by the A3ES, so as to certificate the ISQA in the HEI. Besides the two stated references which are aimed, specifically, to the HEI, when discussing management systems certification, it’s also relevant to mention the ISO norms. The ISO 9001 is the most used norm of management systems worldwide, establishing itself as international reference for the Certification of Quality Assurance of Management Systems. The adoption of a Quality Assurance System is, according to this norm, a strategical decision of the organization. The strategy formulated to ensure quality in Higher Education uses internal systems of quality assurance, of the institutions responsibility, and also external systems, of the quality assurance agencies responsibility. The development of quality assurance systems demands a balance between the HEI’s actions and the external procedures of quality assurance purposed by the agencies, in the case of Portugal, the A3ES. HEIs are required to establish their own self-evaluation mechanisms. For this purpose, promoting a solid internal quality culture is elemental to strengthen effective strategies of institutional evaluation. Related to its continuous improvement process, Portucalense University, a private HEI, located in Portugal, decided to certificate its quality assurance system, both by the A3ES and by the ISO 9001. This article describes the developed practices in this double certification process. The perception of the areas with greater need of being leveraged, the respective improvements to be applied, and the better way of proceeding in regard to the continuous improvement of the processes, either of management, value chain and support or services, stand out as results of this content analysis. With this study, it is intended to contribute with good practices for the attainment of the certifications and the continuous improvement of the HEI in question.