KRIVICKAS, Romanas Vladas
Studentu 50, LT-3031 Kaunas, Lithuania, Kaunas University of Technology, rkr@soften.ktu.lt
Abstract:
The quality of engineering education is an important problem for higher education and industry.
In several areas of the developed world, the primary control mechanism is the accreditation of study programmes.
In Lithuania the Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education is responsible for improvement of research and educational activities of the institutions.
University and society nor always expect the same from the graduates of the university.
Usually university gives preference to theoretical knowledge in professional field, but industry place communication skills, interest in learning new skills and teamwork ahead of technical skills.
This is a challenge to the university to meet needs of the society.
Besides that, it is unavoidable to take into consideration the needs of students.
Participation in a PHARE Multi-country Programme "Quality Assurance in Higher Education" was a good experience for the Kaunas University of Technology.
The aim of the Programme was to promote co-operation among countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the development of quality assurance systems.
In this rapidly changing world the quality assurance is the only way for the university to be competitive in the global market of higher education.
Keywords: quality, assurance, engineering, education
Rapid political, social and economic changes in countries of Central and Eastern Europe significantly affect the functioning of institutions of higher education. Thus the quality of education is an important problem for both-university and society.
Accreditation of study programme, as the primary quality control mechanism for education, is utilized in several areas of the developed world. In the USA engineering programmes at colleges and universities are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), providing minimum standards for quality, by examining curriculum, faculty credentials, student quality, facilities, and other features. Accreditation stimulates the improvement of education, provides guidance for the improvement of educational programmes, identifies to the public, professional societies, employers the institutions and study programmes that meet criteria for accreditation.
Well-developed accreditation systems also exist in such countries as Australia, Canada, United Kingdom.
A different situation exists in Lithuania. In 1995 the Ministry of Education and Science established the Center for Quality Assessment in Higher Education. The Center is an independent body that is financed by the State. The Center is responsible for co-ordination and guidance of the regular process of self-analysis of educational, research activities and peer review in the institutions.
The major purpose of the quality assessment at the university is to contribute to improvement of study quality. But the quality depends only upon the institution under consideration. Professor Hans Jensen, Rector of the Technical University of Denmark says: "An education possesses quality when it is experienced by the students as being meaningful, developing and interesting, and when the graduates have acquired knowledge and qualifications which enable them to earn their own living with the diplomas as a platforms [1]".
At the Global Congress on Engineering Education A. Krasniewski and J. Woznicki from Warsaw University of Technology presented and excellent paper "Assessment of education quality: impact of economic transformations" [2]. According to the authors, the quality assurance process is related to the different levels of the university. Academics assess their teaching quality on the basis of student's performance and review forms filled by the students.
Analysis of these results are carried out at the faculty or/and university level with reference to the aims and objectives of the institution or the study programme. The objective of the assessment procedure is to identify weakness in the education process and recommend appropriate changes.
Actually this quality assurance model is too simplified, because it does not reflect the duration of study period and delay in decision making process.
But this is not the only imperfection. University and society not always expect the same from the graduates of the university. Such a discrepancy in evaluation is presented in the paper [3] of P. Gregory and K. Mathew from Monash University.
Usually university gives preference to theoretical knowledge in professional field, but business place communication skills, interest in learning new skills and teamwork ahead of technical skills.
This is a challenge to the university to meet needs of the society.
If we wish to assure the quality of education we can not ignore this challenge. There is a joke that university is a good place to work, but without students. Unfortunately, but university can not exist without students. Therefore it is unavoidable to take into consideration the needs of students.
In 1997/98 Kaunas University of Technology participated in a PHARE Multi-country Programme in Higher Education "ZZ-95.20 Quality Assurance in Higher Education". The aim of the project was to promote co-operation among countries of central and eastern Europe in the development of higher education quality assurance systems. The countries involved in the project were Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Macedonia. The project was carried out by a consortium of organizations, which had wide international experience of quality assurance in higher education from United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Lithuania, France, Denmark and Slovenia. Kaunas University of Technology was the only educational institution from Lithuania. Participation in the project was a good experience for the University.
In Kaunas University of Technology two pilot evaluations have been carried out at both institutional and programme of study (electrical engineering) levels.
The self-evaluation report was the first stage in the process of evaluation.
Self-evaluation report for institutional evaluation was prepared by an Organizational Committee, chaired by the Rector of the University with five members, representing university management, academics and students. Since the time for preparation of the report was limited, virtually it was based on the available information and documents.
A radical reorganization of the study system of the university was commenced in 1992. The Mission and Goals of the University were formulated and accepted by the University community. The changes were expected to create a technological university with a study system based on research and meeting international standards, oriented to the areas and fields of science that were suitable for development of this country, with a wide range of humanitarian and social science studies.
The university is developing a new understanding of the interrelation between humanity and technology. Humanities and social sciences no longer merely complement the standard of general education but play an important role in sustainable technology.
The current study system consists of Bachelor's studies (4 years); Master's studies (2 years), or Professional Engineer's studies (1 year). Master's studies may be followed by Doctoral studies. The curricula at the university are based on a modular system. To measure the extent of studies, the credit was introduced, which corresponds to 40 student work hours.
A greater emphasis is placed on the individual work of students in order to move from teaching to learning.
To evaluate the concept of university modernization and the milestones of its development, in the spring of 1993 an international conference with participants from USA, UK, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and other countries was held. In addition, the activity was evaluated by experts: a special mission overseeing engineering education in Europe and SEFI evaluations that was visiting the technological universities of the Baltic States. Later University activities were evaluated by experts of Research Council of Norway as well as a Commission formed by the government of Lithuania. All evaluations were based on self-evaluation reports. Besides that, the University and its subdivisions prepare self-evaluation reports annually.
Therefore the Committee in preparing the self-evaluation report for the evaluation of quality assurance in the University could make use of accumulated experience and a great number of documents. In addition Committee members consulted with collegues and held discussions as to the prepositions to be presented in the evaluation. The first version of the report had been made available to the university community for discussions and corrections.
Committee tried to make the report analytical and self-critical as much as possible in order to indicate that the University has a good understanding of its strengths and limitations.
The self-evaluation report and quality assurance activities of the university were evaluated by the international expert team. The overall opinion was positive.
The majority of the University community consists of students. It is the most dynamic part of the community. Students are heavily involved in their studies. They are responsible for formation of personal study plans, selection of appropriate study courses, private or individual work. But students' influence on academic affairs still is limited mainly to the evaluation of study modules, teaching methods and teacher's performance.
Besides studies students are encouraged to take part in decision-making bodies of the University, in order to ensure, that the student viewpoint on education is made clear to the University. These activities are growing, but still are rather modest.
The aim of the Phare Multi-Country Programme in Higher Education was to promote cooperation among countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the development of quality assurance systems. In this rapidly changing world the quality assurance is the only way for the university to be competitive in the global market of higher education.
University actually has a responsibility to prepare their graduates to deal with uncertainties and challenges that are likely to arise in the future. Therefore university is due to stay in the stage of permanent development and modernization.
JENSEN, H.P. Universities in Change. Global J. Engng.Educ. 2,1, 99-102 s. 1997.
KRASNIEWSKI, A. & WOZNICKI, J. Assessment of Education Quality: Impact of Economic Transformation, Global Congress on Engineering Education, Congress Proceedings. Cracow, Poland, 27-31 s. 1998.
GREGORY, P. & MATHEW, J. Niche Marketing: Training Industrial Engineers / Engineering Managers for a Key Role in Industry, Global Congress on Engineering Education, Congress Proceedings. Cracow, Poland, 202-206 s. 1998.