SHOULD THE STUDENTS BE ENGAGED IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION QUALITY ASSURANCE? (PERSPECTIVES OF STUDENTS AND QUALITY ASSURANCE DEPARTMENT)

Abstract

Almost all higher educational institutions create their own education quality management systems throughout the world. Higher educational institutions need to respond to the international standards and criteria of quality development. The education quality management is the internal and external assessment procedure; which implementation contribute to the quality increase of an institute. In our case, the quality assessment provides the education quality improvement at a higher educational institution. In the regulation of the European universities, the student’s role is clearly defined and highlighted in the above-mentioned process. With the student’s engagement, we mean the interaction of students and other resources of a university for the increase of educational result and the development of educational activities in order to improve the reputation of higher educational institution. Since the European country joins the Bologna Process, the country has obligation to share the European countries’ experience and satisfy all the demands stated towards the country. Thus, it is important to study and implement the world’s best practices of student’s engagement in the education quality management process. During the research, we have learned the students’ attitudes towards the education quality management department and its activities, how students are engaged in the quality management process, whether the mentioned department gives feedback to students, what students think about their role in the described process. The research was conducted in two Georgian and one Spanish universities. The interviews were done with students and representatives of education quality management department. The research showed that the most of respondents have the wish to increase the students’ engagement level. However, there were defined the different obstructions and challenges; the students name the less feedback from university, and the representatives of the Education Quality Assurance Department highlight the problem of students’ less knowledge and awareness.