6533b7cefe1ef96bd1257a4c

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Reception of the quality assurance commitments of the Bologna process in Finnish higher education institutions

Timo Ala-vähälä

subject

laadunvarmistusHigher educationEducational qualityquality assuranceEducationLikert scalePolitical science0502 economics and businessMarketingimplementationBerlin CommuniquéBolognan prosessibusiness.industry05 social sciences050301 educationta5142Bologna ProcessPublic relationsWork experienceuniversity personnelBologna processbusiness0503 educationQuality assuranceWeb survey050203 business & management

description

AbstractThis article analyses Finnish higher education institutions’ reception of the implementation of the new quality assurance systems that governments participating in the Bologna Process have committed to establishing in the Berlin Communique of 2003. The data were collected using a web survey and the respondents were classified with a cluster analysis. The reception was more positive in the polytechnics than in the research universities and women were more positive than men. People working in managerial positions were most positive about, and committed to, quality assurance. Most critical were young researchers in research universities working in temporary jobs. Some opinions were so strongly shared that respondents with short work experience expressed their opinions, even though they could not have personal experience of the topic in question. For some topics, respondents without personal experience, but having a critical attitude, tended to give their opinion whereas those with neutral attitude ab...

https://doi.org/10.1080/13538322.2016.1195966