Quality Assurance in Higher Education Study Programmes: a challenge for leading Czech universities

26. 5. 2010 / Robin Healey

Large numbers of new private universities have opened. So-called "structured studies" have been introduced, with a new and controversial category of bachelor study programmes. There is considerable discussion on whether massification and diversification of post-secondary education, inadequate funding and private universities are not leading to lower standards in the sector.

The international dimension of higher education quality has also become important. With EU membership, there are increasing opportunities for students to study abroad, especially through the Erasmus programme. Graduates can also quite easily work outside their home country. Formal and informal recognition of the quality of Czech study programmes and diplomas will increasingly affect the quality of international study and work opportunities for our students and graduates abroad.

Questions of quality in higher education study programmes are often mixed with questions of accreditation of study programmes. Accreditation, especially in the Czech context, is tied to achieving the minimum requirements to offer a study programme. Much effort goes into ensuring that all study programmes leading to a degree diploma at all post-secondary education institutions are compliant. Each individual study programme must be accredited, if a Czech degree diploma is to be awarded. (Another option is to be accredited by a foreign institution, and this is made use of by some Higher Vocational Colleges, by some private universities, and also by all MBA programmes, for which Czech accreditation is not available.)

Until 2003, the Czech public universities offered almost exclusively straight-through five-year or five-and-a-half-year programmes leading to a range of titles that were equivalent to a master's degree. By 2003, those programmes that had not been converted into the bachelor/master's system in accordance with the Bologna process, or had not been specifically exempted, forfeited state funding. In the event, all universities and faculties complied with this financial steering, more or less resentfully. Each of the new wave of bachelor study programmes, and a few years later, each of the new wave of master's programmes, had to go through a time-consuming accreditation process. Each programme will have to be re-accredited at intervals of 4 to 8 years. This has placed an enormous burden on the Accreditation Commission and on the university faculties.

The accreditation operation is mainly aimed at eliminating "rogue providers" of study programmes. The accreditation criteria are mainly concerned with inputs: Does the study programme have an appropriately qualified guarantor (programme director) and adequate teachers? Are there adequate facilities? Is a proper description of the programme provided? Are adequately prepared students admitted? For the well-provided faculties of the leading Czech public universities, it is not difficult to fulfill these requirements.

However, two problems are thrown up for the more or less well-provided leading public universities: firstly, the accreditation process takes up far too much time and energy, and eats up the resources that they should be dedicating to the pursuit of real quality in their education programmes; secondly, quality assurance and accreditation procedures imply that university teachers cannot be trusted without supervision to provide good quality courses. There is a danger that poorly-devised measures aimed at improving the performance of untrustworthy colleagues will merely waste time and demotivate the conscientious and trustworthy majority, without in fact forcing the poorly-motivated minority to improve their performance.

Of course, it would be possible to impose more demanding requirements for accreditation of study programmes. Of course the leading Czech public universities can quite easily prove that they provide adequate inputs - a sufficiently qualified staff, adequate facilities, more or less well-prepared students. It would be more demanding if they had to prove that they also add substantial value to their well-prepared students by putting them through well-devised, well-implemented teaching and learning programmes.

But do not be alarmed, such a challenge is not about to be issued to our leading public universities! The Accreditation Commission in the Czech Republic is firmly in the grasp of senior academics, mainly from the public universities. Other stakeholders, e.g., employers of graduates, young lecturers, students and alumni, and society as a whole, are very underrepresented. This need not be explained as an academic conspiracy. Accreditation Commission work needs to be done by well-informed people who can earn the respect of rectors, deans and others. In its present form, where little training is offered, payments are modest and the work load is high, accreditation commission work is not very attractive for suitably qualified persons except, possibly, senior and emeritus academics.

The Ministry of Education does, rather vaguely, require universities to have a system of internal quality assurance. However, it is left for the autonomous universities and faculties to devise and administer their own scheme. Several factors work against the establishment of a strong quality culture for study programmes at the Czech universities: there is no tradition of investigating the performance of teachers; research is much more prestigious and more important than teaching in the university career structure; assurance of teaching quality would require a level of intervention by deans, heads of department and programme directors that would be considered by many to be intrusive. Most faculties do little more than send out questionnaires to their students asking them to assess the courses that they have taken. However, not all students find time to fill in the questionnaires, and not all faculties, departments and course directors take serious action, or any action at all, on the basis of the answers that they receive.

At the leading Czech public universities, and elsewhere, there are without doubt many excellent teachers and supervisors of student projects. However, they tend to function as autonomous individuals, not as members of a teaching team. There is no adequate system to assure "total quality", i.e., to assure that all aspects of the process are done to a good standard. Some inadequate practices are allowed to continue: for example, many teachers have little or no pedagogical training; classes do not automatically begin on the first day of the semester or exactly at the advertised time, in a clearly designated room; many teachers would be unable to prove that they have examined their students in a "fair" way.

Similarly, there is little doubt that our best graduates are very good. However, their skills include, to an excessive extent, how to get a good grade without attending classes regularly, without mastering the topic or being able to apply it. Of course, students everywhere are skilled at finding easy ways of achieving good grades -- this is by no means a Czech issue. A good measure that assures the quality of the graduates of all Czech universities is the state examination. This is not just a pre-graduation ritual -- it is above all a serious, rigorous test of students' knowledge and skills. Each graduand is examined individually before a large commission of external and internal examiners, and is required to demonstrate that she/he deserves to graduate.

Leading universities in other countries are not without their quality assurance problems, but they are well on the way toward instituting quality assurance structures and establishing a quality culture.

Several Czech public universities proclaim themselves a "top university", and even appear in the published ranking lists of top universities in the world. However, ranking lists do not measure quality: they show which institutions are considered most prestigious. Prestige is mainly a product of a glorious past, while quality assurance aims to ensure a glorious future. Self-proclamation and unofficial ranking lists will not necessarily continue to be enough -- it is necessary to establish measures to ensure that good performance will continue into the future.

Various networks of top universities are being formed, and it is important to qualify for membership. For example, the Czech Technical University in Prague belongs to TIME, and the University of Life Sciences in Prague belongs to Euroleague. TIME and Euroleague are associations of prestigious technical and life science (agricultural) universities, respectively. They aim to offer students at the member universities the opportunity to gain a double or a joint degree at any other member university. This implies that all members of the consortium must guarantee to provide only high quality programmes.

The quality assurance measures taken at the leading Czech universities are probably not yet truly adequate for membership of elite networks such as Euroleague and TIME. There is probably not the necessary quality culture throughout the institution, and too many poor practices are tolerated. There is usually only a weak internal quality assurance programme, and external measures for assuring the quality of study programmes amount to little more than mere compliance with the modest requirements of the Czech Accreditation Commission and the Erasmus programme.

The leading Czech faculties and universities need to establish a strong internal quality assurance system aimed at ensuring high quality in all aspects of all study programmes that they offer. They need an effective framework for implementing a quality culture. At the same time, however, it is important not to destroy the traditional trust that the universities have placed in their professors and teaching staff. The universities must be careful to avoid establishing procedures that will burden and demotivate key members of the teaching staff without truly improving quality.

The time is coming to an end when top Czech universities can be accepted for membership of elite international university networks as institutions "undergoing/emerging from a difficult transition". It is time for them to earn recognition as top universities on absolute merit. Well-devised quality assurance is part of the way forward for the leading Czech universities.

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Kohoutek, Jan (ed.) Studies on Higher Education. Implementation of the European Standards and Guidelines in the Central and East European Countries: the Agenda Ahead, CEPES European Center for Higher Education, Bucharest, 2009.

The book consists of chapters on how issues of quality and accreditation of study programmes have been handled in Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Latvia and the Czech Republic since 1989. Particularly interesting are the chapters by the editor, Jan Kohoutek, which introduce the history and implementation of accreditation and quality assurance in higher education, with special reference to the central and eastern European countries. These chapters take a critical look at what has been happening, and provide a solid background for discussions on how to improve on the present situation.

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Robin Healey is an international officer at the rectorate of the Czech Technical University in Prague.

Previous articles by this author:

"The Enterpreneurial University - Czech Style"

"Podnikatelská univerzita po česku"

"Old Values in New Hands"

"Staré hodnoty v nových rukou"

"A decade of change... to come"

"České vysoké školství - dosud jen malé změny"

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