Prof. György BAZSA, President Hungarian Accreditation Committee (HAC) From Quality Assurance to Quality Culture HEA Regional Conference Sarajevo, 6 October, 2011 Hungarian Accreditation Committee – past, present and future

Prof. György BAZSA, President Hungarian Accreditation Committee (HAC) From Quality Assurance to Quality Culture HEA Regional Conference Sarajevo, 6 October, 2011

Why accreditation?  First half of 20th century in US: protection of good reputation, diplomas and interest of excellent HE institutions against low level education and degrees.  Second half of 20th century: increasing importance of quality, therefore developing systematic quality assurance systems and quality culture.  In higher education: to ensure and improve quality of education and training in interest of all stakeholders (students, labor market, government).  For (the knowledge based) society: declaring safe- guarded and evaluated quality of programs and/or HE institutions, transparency, informing the public.

Hungarian Higher Education (HHE) HE enrollment: before 1990 < 10% of age group at present~ 38 % of age group HE students total:~ (half state funded) Legal background: Act on HE 1993 and 2005 new law in 2012 (draft) HE institutions:~7 HEI / 1 million people HEIState Church/ Private Total University College Total

System of training programs Before 2005: parallel system of programs - college (practice oriented), 3-4 y. - university (research oriented), 5-6 y. Since 2005 (sequence of 3 cycles; Bologna system): - Bachelor – 180/210 credits, 3-3,5 y. - Master – 90/120 credits, 2 y - long masters: 300 credits (med, law) - PhD – 180 credits, 3+ years Compulsory general changeover started in This burdened HHE and HAC enormously in recent years. Dr. univ. has a long tradition in Hungary. The present PhD form exists since 1993 at universities.

Actors and factors in (Hungarian) HE Quality a) Government: HE Q policy, legal and financial conds. b) HAC:external Q Evaluation and Accreditation c) HEIs:key performers in quality of the „product”, responsible for internal Q Assurance d) Faculty:determines Q of teaching and research e) Students: accept and reflect to Q of teaching f) Labor market: confirms/questions Q of HE graduates g) Media:reports Q and prepares HE ranking h) Europe: Bologna, EHEA, ESG, ENQA: public Q + international Q labels + US NCFMEA

a) Government (Minister): QA and accreditation is part of state HE policy Hungary signed Bologna declaration QUALITY AWARD for HEI QA activity After strong expansion (fourfold increase in student number in a decade) the main focus now: quality! Impact Hungarian HE community accepts the need and benefit of QA and accreditation. HEIs run QA systems and processes ordered by law. State financing is not connected to QA and Accred. Quality issue in general is now a common concern of the society.

b) HAC 1 Independent, mainly academic board, funded by Parliament (stakeholders spots). 19 members (formally appointed by PM), majority delegated by Rector’s Conference and HAS; secretly elected president, committees, for 3+3 years. Its resolutions are „expert opinions”, legal decisions become effective through minister(ial organs). There is an independent HAC appeal board. HAC is a European QA player, charter member of ENQA (European Association for QA in HE), its membership affirmed twice by external reviews. HAC accepted and applies ESG in all respects.

HAC 2 HAC is the only accreditation body in Hungarian HE, all HEIs have to apply to HAC for external QA and accreditation. HAC has a permanent secretariat (8 + 7 staff) a database of ~1200 experts (acutally trained) HAC introduced HE EXCELLENCE AWARDS HAC has functions in external and in internal QA. HAC sets public conditions and quality norms in evaluation and accreditation. HAC activity and decisions are public:

HAC 3 HAC is strengthening its international relations and actions in QA activity permanently with different actions and co-operations. HAC has an active International Advisory Board. HAC has to move from evaluation of inputs to outputs. (Note! Filtering out a program at start is less painful than exclusion during the process.) HAC wishes that institutions show their values and results at accreditation instead of fearing a critical evaluation. More self-esteem is needed, if it’s well founded! HAC has its own Self-Assessment mechanisms. HAC needs to increase its publicity.

System of HAC activities (external QA) at input (ex ante) – HEI is charged During process & at output (ex post) – free of charge establishing HEIs/faculties Accred. of operating HEI, including QA system (/5 y) establishing B and M programs --- launching B and M programs parallel programs’ evaluation setting up doctoral (PhD) schools doctoral schools’ evaluation professors’ appointment---

System of HAC activities (external QA) at input (ex ante) – HEI is charged During process & at output (ex post) – free of charge establishing HEIs/faculties establishing B and M programs --- launching B and M programs setting up doctoral (PhD) schools professors’ appointment---

Task for HAC Average cases/year approved /total establishment of HEI/faculty2 – 4--- accred. of operating HEI8 – establishment of Bachelor pr.4 – 6141/163 launching Bachelor programs80 – 100~800/1100 establishment of Master pr.50 – 60~350/450 launching Master programs300 – 400~550/750 parallel accred. of B/M progr.30 – accreditation of PhD schools2 – * opinion for professors’ appt120 – 140yes: 90–100 HAC past activities in figures

Processes (standards are published in advance): Ex ante accreditations (input conditions): in 90 days  written proposal submitted  2 HAC expert reviews (anonymous) →  disciplinary committees’ proposal (15 members) →  resolution of HAC plenum Ex post accreditation (during operation): in 1 year  self-evaluation report (including C-SWOT) →  site visit by a visiting team (HAC experts, incl. student, stakeholder, QA specialist) →  draft of the accr. report of the visiting team →  comments from the HEI →  resolution of HAC plenum

A unique system: parallel accreditation of all doctoral schools (PhD programs) in Hungary. a full, live, open access electronic database, cove- ring all 26 universities +1 college: (Information for students!) ex ante and ex post evaluation of ~200 doctoral schools, the 3rd cycle of Bologna system, including -documents of functions, teaching and research plans, coherency, programs of QA, -websites, -~ 2200 core members evaluated individually by qualification, performance and relevance to the respective school. This mirrors the quality of scientific output of HEI.

Impact of HAC on HEIs HEIs consider the quality norms and consequences of external evaluation in all issues : applications are often prepared carefully; exceptions ~25%. HAC conditions and norms are the same for all – state and non-state (but state recognized) – HEIs. HAC has high quality norms in order to compensate the expansive ambitions of HEIs (state financing follows student number, not quality). HAC evaluations result in requests and advice for QA systems and management of HEIs. HAC as a strong quality safeguard reduces the responsibility of HEIs: HAC whishes to change it!

c) HEI quality management 1 – 2 documents  HE Act: „The HEI operates an internal QA system. The HEI prepares a quality development program. It specifies the process of operation, like the execu- tion of management, planning, control, measurement, assessment, and consumer protection related tasks regulates the rules pertaining to the evaluation of lecturer performance by the students. The HEI annually revises the implementation of the program and publishes its findings on the website.” QA systems are developed, programs start formally.

HEA’s question: Secretariat manages (organizes) the process of accreditation (logistics, printed and e-reports, visits). HAC secretariat has 15 permanent members (8 professional and 7 administrative). Independent expert members of the visiting panels are selected by HAC plenum from a large database. Reports are written by the visiting panel. HAC delivers draft of the reports to the HEI on comments before accepting the final version. Compulsory accreditation is financed by the state in the HAC’s budget

Evaluation of HEI’s proposal is financed by the HEI (fee is set by the government). HAC has web-published criteria as a base for accreditation of all courses and programs. Average period for one institutional and parallel program accreditation is about one year. HAC conducts accreditation of the third cycle; e-databese:

QA vs. QP: QA isn’t an art for art sake: the main aim of QA is good Quality Product: - high class graduates, - excellent science and innovation, - efficient local/social services.

Thank you for the invitation and for your kind attention!