Higher Education Quality Assurance in Uruguay: Balance and Perspective of a Delayed Policy

Autor/inn/en	Martínez Larrechea, Enrique; Chiancone, Adriana
Titel	Higher Education Quality Assurance in Uruguay: Balance and Perspective of a Delayed Policy
Quelle	In: Quality Assurance in Education: An International Perspective, 30 (2022) 3, S.304-318 (15 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0968-4883
DOI	10.1108/QAE-09-2021-0147
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Quality Assurance; Educational Quality; Accreditation (Institutions); Institutional Evaluation; Educational Policy; Educational History; Strategic Planning; Uruguay + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Qualitätssicherung; Quality of education; Bildungsqualität; Accreditation; Institution; Institutions; Akkreditierung; Staatliche Anerkennung; Institut; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; History of education; Bildungsgeschichte; Strategy; Planning; Strategie; Planung
Abstract	Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and interpret the atypical case of Uruguay related to quality assurance, evaluation and accreditation of Higher Education in Uruguay. Design/methodology/approach: To do so, a Higher Education conceptual framework is developed, focusing on quality assurance and formulating some "hypotheses" (conjectural ways of thinking within a qualitative tradition). The method to collect data includes the use of document observation, secondary information from official databases and interviews with an intentional sample of 10 experts and key informants. The analysis is developed through some conceptual dimensions emerging from the precedent sources (public policy and the role of the state, changes in the system of science, technology and innovation linked to Higher Education, the influence of the regional integration process and the weak public demand for quality assurance). Findings: The paper also presents and discusses the atypical country's experience regarding the lack of a national quality assurance policy and the structural dynamic of delaying main transformations by adopting graduate changes. Research limitations/implications: The study analyzes the recent process of Higher Education policies oriented to quality assurance in the two decades and a half between 1996 and 2021, focusing especially on the recent years (2019-2020). Practical implications: The findings indicate that the Higher Education system needs to update its structure and shape, withdrawing fragmentation and consolidating a national system able to promote quality. The paper offers some inputs to strategic planning and debate. Social implications: Reforming Higher Education is key to change the social logic of High School, which still operates as a social selective mechanism, mainly oriented to the professional application rather than to knowledge production or management. Originality/value: The paper contributes to the political and academic debate through some conceptual categories emerging from the study. The previous description of academic literature about Uruguay Higher Education quality assurance (QA) did not include either the new situation created by the approval of contradictory laws or the interpretation of this public policy arranged as a "structural dynamic of delay of the main transformations by adopting graduate and incremental changes". Whether any originality could be found in the paper, it would be this way of interpreting the process of QA in Uruguay. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01