Decision Analysis of Processes in the Context of the Intitutional Assessment

Decision 2/2021
ANALYSIS OF PROCESSES IN THE CONTEXT OF
THE INSTITUTIONAL ASSESSMENT – 2017/2018

1. In 2017/2018, A3ES developed an Institutional Assessment action that covered all the Portuguese higher education institutions. This initiative resulted in a set of conclusions that have guided the A3ES's activity in the areas of quality assurance, namely in the certification of Internal Quality Assurance Systems and the identification, in the various institutions, of the respective scientific areas of excellence, also opening the possibility of adopting simplified assessment systems of study programmes.

2. This Institutional Assessment also resulted in a set of information, assessments and recommendations, collected in the various Assessment Reports, prepared by the different External Assessment Teams (EATs).

3. In the A3ES Activity Plan, the preparation of a new Institutional assessment period is foreseen for 2022/2023, after completion of the second cycle of assessment of study programmes.

4. The EAT Reports referred to above will certainly constitute a source of information that will be able to support the adjustments and reorientations that must be made in the Self-assessment Guidelines and the Assessment Report templates for the next institutional assessment period. They will also allow, after analysis, a revisiting of the assessment objectives and the respective procedures, following a tendency to find a more consolidated convergence with the dynamics of the European Higher Education Area.

5. Therefore, a Committee has been created to critically analyse the aforementioned EAT Reports and identify the general lines that allow characterizing the dynamics of the institutions, not only those considered favourable to the consolidation of their respective strategies but also those that reveal a critical phase of their institutional development.

6. The Commission includes the following researchers:
• Cristina Sin;
• Orlanda Tavares

7. The Commission will focus its attention, in the first phase (until June 2021) on collecting information on similar initiatives led and implemented by European Agencies. And, in a second phase (July – December 2021), in the analysis of the contents of the reports archived on the A3ES platform.

8. The Commission will be coordinated by Professor Miguel Faria, Non-Executive Director of A3ES.

Lisbon, 19 April 2021
The President of the Management Board
João Guerreiro