System quality assurance in higher education: Considerations for accreditation in Colombia

The criteria, indicators and tools for assessing the quality of higher education is a theme of growing social and economic importance. Is it measured by assessing the quality of its graduates? Evaluating the quality of the pedagogic relation? By measuring the level of homogenisation of the operational conditions in universities, according to the accreditation criteria in force in Colombia? By the teacher's productivity? By the positions reached in international rankings of universities? These issues are analyzed in this article, which is based on a study of the two systems of higher education quality assurance in Colombia: qualified registry and accreditation. Such study reveals a high degree of redundancy in both systems and an absence of direct measurements of the quality of education. The existing indicators are indirect' and do not measure the quality of the students' acquired learning. These systems are focused mainly in processes and materials and emphasize strongly on their homogenisation and standardization through the pursuance of certain common conditions and factors of all programs and institutions. As an alternative to theses indirect measures of quality of education, a different set of criteria and strategies of direct assessment of the quality of education received by the students are analyzed in this article.