Evaluation of the Criteria and Indicators that Determine Quality in Higher Education: A Questionnaire Proposal

Abstract

Higher education is one of the important fields for development in the economic world. Therefore, it must be based on excellence methodologies and managed by a reliable quality approach. That is why; we must encourage the culture of quality within higher education institutions to make management transparent and understandable by all stakeholders (students, teachers). However, despite the changes and the importance in literature, defining the quality concept in higher education remains vague and unclear. Furthermore, leading a quality approach to allow these institutions to adapt to change and the current needs remains difficult. To remedy to these problems, we expect in this paper to define quality in higher education. After that, we identify a set of typical and consistent criteria, with specific indicators for each criterion, considered as substantial, focusing on the needs of stakeholders with the aim of achieving a good quality. These requirements are established by first passing through a preliminary study based on a questionnaire designed to assess the importance attributed to the criteria mentioned. The responses given to this questionnaire will be analyzed in order to identify the quality indicators and to measure from the experts point of view their relative importance.

Appendix A: Table of Questionnaire Responses

Questions	Frequent distribution	Reponses					Total
		Strongly disagree	Disagree	Neutral	Agree	Strongly agree
Should the course objectives be understandable?	Frequency	3	1	3	16	60	83
	Percent	3.6	1.2	3.6	19.3	72.3	100
Should the course objectives be attainable?	Frequency	4	0	3	32	44	83
	Percent	4.8	0	3.6	38.6	53	100
Should the universities respond to the expectations of the labour market?	Frequency	2	1	5	16	59	83
	Percent	2.4	1.2	6	19.3	71.1	100
Should activities be effective against stated objectives?	Frequency	2	3	12	27	39	83
	Percent	2.4	2.4	14.6	32.9	47.9	100
Should Pedagogical materials be adequate to fulfil the missions and objectives?	Frequency	2	4	11	18	48	83
	Percent	2.4	4.8	13.3	21.7	57.8	100
Must the available recourses correspond to the obtained set objectives?	Frequency	19	21	22	18	3	83
	Percent	22.9	25.3	26.5	21.7	3.6	100
Must the obtained results meet the set objectives?	Frequency	1	6	14	33	29	83
	Percent	1.2	7.2	16.9	39.8	34.9	100
Should the objectives of the higher education system correspond to high priority needs of the labor market?	Frequency	6	4	7	27	39	83
	Percent	7.2	4.8	8.4	32.5	47	100
Is it important that higher education institutions are designed and organized to produce needed diplomas?	Frequency	4	2	16	28	33	83
	Percent	4.8	2.4	19.3	33.7	39.8	100
Should the means (resources, strategies…) must be those that we provided?	Frequency	2	10	15	39	17	83
	Percent	2.4	12	18.1	47	20.5	100
Is it important to have conformance between activities within the education system and the existing regulations?	Frequency	0	10	19	35	19	83
	Percent	0	12	22.9	42.2	22.9	100
Must the higher education system provide all dimensions of knowledge?	Frequency	3	5	15	27	33	83
	Percent	3.6	6	18.1	32.5	39.8	100
Must the degree of involving of students in improving the quality of the establishment be important?	Frequency	5	1	14	33	30	83
	Percent	6	1.2	16.9	39.8	36.1	100