ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HQA

Transcription

1 HELLENIC REPUBLIC HELLENIC QUALITY ASSURANCE AND ACCREDITATION AUTHORITY ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HQA JULY

2 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HQA ATHENS JULY

3 COMPOSITION OF THE ΤΗΣ HQA On 30 June 2012 the composition of the HQA was as follows: DEPUTY PRESIDENT Konstantinos Memos Professor, National Technical University of Athens MEMBERS Ioannis Vlachos Professor, TEI of Crete Ioannis Gerothanasis Professor, University of Ioannina Louiza Loukopoulou Honorary Director of Studies, National Hellenic Research Foundation Kleomenis Oikonomou Professor, TEI of Athens Petros Soldatos Professor, Agricultural University of Athens Stylianos Stamatopoulos Professor, Democritus University of Thrace 3

4 ADMINISTRATIVE, ACADEMIC AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT STAFF (01/01/2012) Dr Nikolaos Georgiades Vasiliki Gini Athanasios Goudosis Dimitra Dargenidou Smaragda Dermitzaki Dr Apostolos Dimitropoulos Vasiliki Kyriakousi Dr Theodoros Kostis Ioanna Leraki Dr Ioanna Malagardi Dimitris Panteleakis Maria Papantoniou Theoni Petropoulou Panagiotis Tikos Aikaterini Tsaliki 4

5 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION... 6 PART ONE ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANISATION... Error! Bookmark not defined. 1. DEVELOPMENTS IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE HQA (July ούλιος President and Members of the HQA Operations of the Collective Organ of the HQA Support Staff THE HQA ORGANISATION FUNDING Regular budget ESPA/HQA programmes CONCLUSIONS TO PART ONE PART TWO - THE WORK OF THE HQA... Error! Bookmark not defined. 1. EVALUATION OF THE ACADEMIC UNITS Internal Evaluations External Evaluations ACTIONS IN SUPPORT OF THE HEIs Operational Support of the ESPA Action "QAUs" of HEIs Conclusions... Error! Bookmark not defined. 2.2 Initiatives in support of the academic units and the QAUs/HEIs ACADEMIC AND OTHER ACTIVITIES Participations in Conferences and other activities abroad Information visits by members of the QAUs (Faculty) and staff of the HQA abroad (ESPA) Participation of Members and staff of the HQA in meetings at events at Greek HEIs on issues of Quality Assurance- Evaulations, etc Organisation of meetings with Quality Assurance agencies abroad Procedures for evaluation of the HQA and registration with the ENQA PART THREE QUALITY IN GREEK HIGHER EDUCATION... Error! Bookmark not defined. OBSERVATIONS AND COMMENTS State level - general observations... Error! Bookmark not defined. Institutional level... Error! Bookmark not defined. Academic unit level "ACTION PLAN" (07/ )

6 INDEX OF TABLES AND GRAPHS Table 1. Regular budget 2011 και 2012 (January May) Table 2. Project Fiche and amendments to the ESPA/HQA programme ( ) Table 3. Flow and absorption of ESPA/HQA programme funding (until end May 2012) Table 4. Analysis of expenses for subproject 6.2 (until end May 2012) Table 5. Internal Evaluation Reports - Pivot Table Table 6. Number of Internal Evaluation Reports per year Table 7. External Evaluation Reports - Pivot Table Table 8. Number of External Evaluations per year Table 9. DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EVALUATIONS OF UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC UNITS Table 10. DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EVALUATIONS OF TEI ACADEMIC UNITS Table 11. EXTERNAL EVALUATIONS OF OTHER ACADEMIC UNITS..31 Graph 1. Bimonthly progress of Internal Evaluations Graph 2. Progress of the submission of Internal Evaluation Reports by HEI academic units Graph 3. Level of completion of Internal Evaluation per university (by ) Graph 4. Level of completion of Internal Evaluation per TEI (by ) Graph 5. Monthly progress of evaluations and corresponding administrative and institutional problems Graph 6. Progress of external evaluations in the period November 2008 June

7 INTRODUCTION The developments during the period covered in this Report culminated in the vote on Law 4009/2011, which radically reformed the Authority's institutional framework, with changes to its administration, the structure of its services, and with the amendment and expansion of its competences (articles 64-75). Institutional reforms are also foreseen in the same law (article 14-15) for the QAU of each QAU HEI. In light of the application of the new law which specifically foresaw for the HQA that, at least as regards the establishment of its new administrative organs, this would have been completed within five months of its passage (6/9/2011) certain of the HQA's operations, such as the replacement of outgoing Members, announcements of competitions, were temporarily suspended, by a decision of the Authority's Plenary. Moreover, acceptance of the resignation of the President, Professor S. Amourgis (17 January 2012) led to his replacement by Professor Konstantinos Memos as Deputy President, as no new administration for the Authority had been appointed until then. The non-implementation of the new law, however, was extended and remains extended today to beyond the explicitly stated deadline, despite our repeated written appeals. With the last resignation of a member (28/2/2012) and the realisation that the current situation would not permit the Plenary to operate with a quorum, it is no longer lawfully possible to take important decisions, including decisions for the creation of External Evaluation Committees and, consequently, the carrying out of external evaluations besides those already pending. The remaining members of the Authority found themselves obliged to suspend the procedures for evaluation of the HEIs until the state appoints a new President and Council for the authority. For this exact same reason, the current "Report" is a simple presentation of activities, which was prepared by the remaining seven members of the HQA. Recently, the HQA, via the present author, believing that the continuation of the Administration is an important principle, made a final attempt to normalise the situation by replacing the four members who resigned - effectively operating with the regulatory framework that existed before Law 4009/11. Already, the Synod of Rectors and Presidents of the Universities and the Coordinating Committee of the Presidents 7

8 and Vice Presidents of the TEI, proposed to the Ministry of Education the Members that had been requested by the Authority. The great importance of these developments does not come through in the results presented in this report, but it will become clearer in the near future. Indeed, until June 2012 the academic units of the HEIs continued with increasing pace to prepare and submit internal evaluation reports, but the dynamic that developed from March 2011 with the unexpected flow of funding also permitted the speedy progress of the External Evaluations, despite the reduction in the number of the Authority's Members. The consequences, however, of the suspension of the external evaluations will become painfully clear during the second half of We look forward to the quickest possible restoration of normality, which will allow the Authority to once again to pursue its important role in the assurance and improvements of quality in higher education. Konstantinos Memos, Professor, NTUA Deputy President of the HQA July 2012 This report covers the HQA's activities from the second half of 2011 to the first half of The activities of the first six months of 2011 had been covered by the previous Report, which was submitted to the Parliament and the (then) Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs, and was published in early July As such, the analyses and comments included mainly in Part One cover the 12 months from July June Nonetheless, in order to provide a complete picture of developments in 2011, it was deemed necessary in the Tables at least to present, in a unified way, the complete data for the whole of the year 2011 and, separately, those for the first six months of

9 PART ONE ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANISATION 1. DEVELOPMENTS IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE HQA (July July 2012) 1.1 President and Members of the HQA The second half of 2011 was marked by the successive resignation of a significant number of Members and eventually the President of the HQA: 1. Professor Achilleas GRAVANIS (Government Gazette 241/ ) 2. Professor Anna ANASTASIADOU-SYMEONIDOU (Government Gazette 397/ ) 3. Professor Konstantinos DIAMANTARAS (Government Gazette 382/ ) 4. Professor Vasilios PANAGOU (Government Gazette 79/ ) As such, since late February 2012 the HQA has been working with an inadequate composition, with the remaining members, Professors I. Vlachos, I. Gerothanasis, K. Oikonomou, K. Memos, P. Soldatos, S. Stamatopoulos and Dr L. Loukopoulou. After the vote of Law 4009/2011, on Higher Education, the President of the HQA, Professor K. Spyros Amourgis, who had contributed decisively to the establishment of the role of the HQA, submitted his resignation on 29/9/2011, noting that the responsibilities of HEI evaluation and accreditation agencies, in order to strengthen their integrity, should be as distinct as possible from the areas of their funding. From the acceptance of Mr Amourgis' resignation by the Minister of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs on 17 January 2012, the departing President was replaced by the Deputy President, Konstantinos Memos, Professor of the NTUA, as the most senior member of the HQA who is a university professor. The acceptance of the President's resignation on 17 January 2012 created a problem regarding the approval of the Authority's expenses and the related legislative lacuna was 9

10 covered with am explicit order (article 33, para. 3a, Law 4038/12, Government Gazette14/issue A/ ). 1.2 Operations of the Collective Organ of the HQA A consequence of the above developments was that there was no quorum at the collective organ ("Plenary") of the HQA from March 2012, with the result that it was not lawfully possible to take important decisions, including decisions for the creation of External Evaluation Committees (and, consequently, the carrying out of external evaluations besides those already pending), until the state appoints a new President and Council for the Authority. 1.3 Support Staff As in the past, the HQA continues to operate exclusively with seconded staff, primarily from the Ministry of Education and bodies that it oversees. The table below shows the composition of the administrative and academic staff and their original services. HQA staff No. of staff Original service 4 University of the Aegean 3 Ministry of Education 2 National and Kapodistrian University of Athens 1 Primary education 1 Secondary education 1 Aristotle University of Athens 1 MOU SA, on placement 1 (former) Ministry of Culture and Tourism 1 ΤΕΙ of Athens, on placement 15 TOTAL The administrative dysfunctions of the HQA were exacerbated by the departure due to retirement of the Head of the Secretariat Dr Dimitris Deniozou, who served the HQA with pleasure from December 2009 until August 2011, on secondment from the General Secretariat of Research and Technology. 10

11 With the voting of Law 4009/2011, the HQA stopped being able to second staff "notwithstanding the current legislation", as foreseen in Law 3374/2005. The HQA has made repeated written representations towards the competent authorities, with which it stressed the need to extend the terms of the already seconded staff, who had gained the necessary experience for the operation of an institution with the goal of high quality assurance in higher education. Even so, the government did not approach the issue with understanding, with the result that already by the staff of the HQA began to leave, returning to the original positions. Thus far, four staff members have left and by the end of 2012 the HQA expects to be gradually deprived of the services of another three, i.e. a total of 7 out of 15 staff. By September 2013, all the staff will have left due to the expiry of their secondment or placement, without the HQA having the ability, because of the institutional difficulties it faces, to request their replacement. 2. THE ORGANISATION OF THE HQA The passage of Law 4009/2011 cancelled the planned Internal Regulations of the HQA, the approval of which was pending at the Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs. On the basis of the new law, the organisation of the HQA expects to proceed with the Council of the Authority that will arise with new procedures (Law 4009/2011, article 67). As such, the Plenary has decided on preliminary actions for the preparation of the new draft, so that the procedure can take place directly after the Council is appointed. 3. FUNDING 3.1 Regular budget The regular budget of the HQA for 2012 comes to 610,200 euros for the whole year, against 706,000 euros for The breakdown of its expenditures in 2011 and the first half of 2012 is presented in Table 1. 11

12 Account number Description Approved amount Expenses Balance Approved amount Expenses Jan-May PAYMENT FOR SERVICES 700, , , , , , ALLOWANCES 122, , , , , Allowances for special academic and administrative staff 90, , , , Payment of salaries, allowances etc. of previous years in execution of judicial decisions 12, , , , IKA social security contributions 10, , , , , Contributions to other insurance agencies 10, , , SALARIES OF STAFF ON PRIVATE LAW CONTRACTS OF UNLIMITED DURATION AND SPECIAL CATEGORIES 558, , , , , , Remuneration for members of independent authorities 558, , , , , , PAYMENT FOR TRANSPORT 13, , , , , Expenses for transport in Greece of permanent staff (regular and private law) 6, , , , , Expenses for transport of permanent staff (regular and private law) abroad from and vice versa 7, , , , , PAYMENT FOR OTHER SERVICES 7, , , , , Mobile telephone charges 3, , , , , Fees for maintenance and repair of other equipment 4, , , , PROCUREMENT OF GOODS AND CAPITAL EQUIPMENT 6, , , , PROCUREMENT OF SERVICES EQUIPMENT, ETC. 4, , , ,00 3, Procurement of paper, stationary, etc. 4, , , , PROCUREMENT OF SUPPLIES THE MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR OF THE FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT 1, , , Procurement of supplies for the maintenance repair of every other type of equipment 1, , , VARIOUS PROCUREMENTS 1, , , Other procurements 1, , , Balance HQA General Total of , , , , , Table 1. Regular budget 2011 και 2012 (January May) 12

13 3.2 ESPA/HQA programmes The main share of the funding for the Authority's activities in the years 2011 and 2012 continued to come from the programme "Development of a national programme for quality evaluation and assurance in education and the promotion of social integration in Priority Axes 1, 2, 3, - Horizontal action" (code MIS ), which was introduced on and finally approved in March 2010 (Table 2). Even so, because of the administrative problems, it was not possible to implement the work package until the end of Despite the successful preparation of analytical specifications and tender documents for some of the Deliverables (D), a series of negative events prevented the satisfactory implementation of most of the subprojects in 2010 and In late 2011, given the delays that had taken place, the Plenary of the HQA decided on 8/11/2011 to amend the technical document of the project and to return certain funds primarily for the purposes of economising which it considered that there was no possibility or reason to be absorbed within the timeframe of the approved project. A reassessment of the costs of crucial subprojects was later done and the analytical picture is presented in Table 2. Undoubtedly, the institutional changes that followed (see above pp ) led the HQA to suspend the implementation of most of the work packages (aside from those relating to evaluations that had already been approved and for fixed or current expenses for the smooth operation of the Service), in anticipation of the reconfiguration of the Authority in accordance with the new Law 4009/2011. Indicatively, the details relating to the progress of some of the subprojects and the deliverables are given here more analytically. 13

14 Subproject 1. D.1.2 External evaluation of the academic units: the progress of the external evaluations in particular was delayed until the beginning of 2010, due to the chronic financial problems that threaten the remuneration of the external experts professors of foreign universities who were required to cover their own expenses for their participation in the External Evaluation Committees (expenses for taxis and accommodation in Greece), and without being paid for the work they offered. Despite the repeated representations to the Ministry of Finance, only in July 2011 were the necessary corrective actions taken by the State General Accounting Office. After the passage of Law 4009/2011 and throughout the whole of the first half of 2012, in implementation of the transitional provision of article 80, para. 12c, which foresees the completion of the first cycle of evaluations for all academic units of all HEIs, the programmes and approved External Evaluations and their related expenses continued to be done. They were stopped, however, when the plenary was not able to achieve a quorum and the taking of lawful decisions for the creation of External Evaluation Committees was thus not possible. Subproject 2. Procurement of equipment and software: an objection was made to the process of selecting a supplier after an international competition (July 2011), and the HQA repeatedly referred the legal issue for an opinion to the Legal Advisor of the Ministry of Education, without, until today, receiving the requested legal opinion, with the result that the competition is still pending. Subproject 3. Development of systems for the national quality assurance system: the preparation of the "Analytical Specifications and Tender Documentation" was completed. The related study was submitted in June 2011, but the call for tenders was postponed, as the new expanded responsibilities of the HQA, in accordance with Law 4009/2011, meant that the approved funds need to be increased, as foreseen by the amended project fiche. Subproject 6.3. Quality management and management adequacy of the HQA: the purpose of this subproject was fine-tuned to "monitoring and adaptation of the HQA's quality management system", in accordance with the EN ISO 9001:2008 standard and the ELOT 1429:2008 Managerial Competence standard. The subproject was completed in July 2011 and secured, after an external review, a Certification for Managerial Competence from the Austrian company TUV. Moreover, on 7/3/2012 the required Internal System Review was performed. 14

15 Subproject 7. Translation of external evaluation reports: this competition, which was announced in 2010, was fruitless. The competition was not called again because it was no longer possible to have a legal quorum of the Plenary. As can be seen from the tables below (Tables 3 and 4), the total absorption of the programme's funds until the end of May 2012 does not exceed 10% of the approved amounts. We hope, however, that this will be speeded up after the establishment of the Authority's new administration and the progress of the necessary actions for the Authority's upgraded and expanded work. 15

16 SUBPROJECTS Dec-09 SUBPROJECTS Jan-10 Aug-10 SUBPROJECTS May-11 Oct-11 May DEVELOPMENT OF A NATIONAL SYSTEM FOR QUALITY EVALUATION AND ASSURANCE AND DOCUMENTATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS 12,978, Implementation of the external evaluation system in HEIs 8,110,000 8,110, Implementation of the external evaluation system in HEIs D.1 Preparation of external evaluators' register 260, ,000 D.1 Preparation of external evaluators' register 260, , ,000 D.1.2 External evaluation of the HEIs' academic units 7,200,000 7,200,000 D.1.2 External evaluation of the HEIs' academic units 7,200,000 7,200,000 7,200,000 D.1.3 Database of evaluation data 500, ,000 D.1.3 Database of evaluation data 500, , ,000 D 1.4 Training of management in advanced systems 150, ,000 D.1.4 Training of management in advanced systems 150, , , PUBLICITY 450, Equipment and software procurement 350, , Equipment and software procurement 347, , , RENTING OF HQA OFFICES 795, EQUIPMENT (HARDWARE), OTHER EQUIPMENT AND SOFTWARE 3. Development of a national quality assurance system 400, , Development of a national quality assurance system 390, , , , Information, awareness-raising 1,553,000 1,230, Information, awareness-raising 750, , ,000 D 4.1 Information, awareness-raising 865, ,000 D 4.2 Publicity 100, ,000 D 4.3 Training management of institutions, etc. 288, ,000 D 4.4 Translation of External Evaluation Reports 300, DEVELOPMENT OF SYSTEMS FOR THE NATIONAL QUALITY EVALUATION AND ASSURANCE SYSTEMS 200, HQA Evaluation 55,000 55, HQA Evaluation 55,000 55,000 55, EVALUATION OF PROJECT 28, Development of operation of the HQA 3,402,500 2,877, Development of operation of the HQA 2,877,500 2,877,500 2,877,500 D.6.1 Staffing of the HQA 1,800,000 1,800,000 D.6.1 Staffing of the HQA 1,800,000 1,800,000 1,800,000 D.6.2 Operational support 1,352, ,000 D.6.2 Operational support 827, , ,000 D.6.3 Quality management of the HQA 175, ,000 D.6.3 Quality management of the HQA 175, , ,000 D.6.4 Subscriptions 75,500 75,500 D.6.4 Subscriptions 75,500 75,500 75, Translation of External Evaluation Reports 295, Translation of External Evaluation Reports 295, , , Renting of HQA offices 566, Renting of HQA offices 566, , , Publicity 100, , , Training of institution management, etc. 380, , ,000 "ACTION" TOTAL 14, ,870,500 13,009,500 13,870,500 13,870,500 13,870,500 Table 2. Project Fiche and amendments to the ESPA/HQA programme ( ) 16

17 Expenses 2010 Expenses 2011 Expenses Jan-May 2012 Total 1. Implementation of the external evaluation system in HEIs 235, , , ,015, D.1.2 External evaluation of the HEIs' academic units 235, , , , D.1.4 Training of management in advanced systems 11, , , Development of operation of the HQA 71, , , , D.6.2 Operational support 71, , , , D.6.3 Quality management of the HQA 10, , D.6.4 Subscriptions 4, , Renting of HQA offices 113, , , , "ACTION" TOTAL 420, ,198,76 307,413,19 1,498, Table 3. Flow and absorption of ESPA/HQA programme funding (until end May 2012) Subproject 6.2 ( /2012) SERVICES 22, Preparation of specifications 19, Maintenance of computers and peripherals 1, Maintenance of installation Post Publications in the press 1, CONSUMABLES - STATIONARY 14, Consumables 14, Stationary PROCUREMENTS 12, , Computers 1, Electrical equipment Software 9, , Furniture depreciation 1,904, TRANSPORT GREECE-ABROAD Transport OPERATIONAL 50, , Utilities 17, , OTE telephone DEI electricity 18, , EYDAP water Cleaning 14, , Total 100, , Table 4. Analysis of expenses for subproject 6.2 (until end May 2012) 17

18 4. CONCLUSIONS TO PART ONE In conclusion, with the exclusive responsibility of the state, the administrative organisation of the HQA in the period /2012 is gradually being taken apart, on the level of both its Members and its support staff. This situation has seriously deteriorated further in the first half of 2012, resulting in the effective cessation of the main work of the Authority, namely external evaluations of the HEIs. 18

19 PART TWO THE WORK OF THE HQA 1. EVALUATION OF THE ACADEMIC UNITS 1.1 Internal Evaluations The significant increase in the rate of submission of External Evaluation Reports observed in 2011 continued in the first half of 2012 (69 new External Evaluation Reports), with the result that, up until today, 448 Reports out of a total of 528 HEI academic units have been submitted, 1 while a further 72 academic units have not yet completed the Internal Evaluation procedure (Table 5-6 and Graphs 1-4). UNIVERSITIES TEI TOTAL st half AUT Centre for Foreign Language Teaching 2010 AUT School of Modern Greek Language 2010 National School of Public Health 2011 Bureau of Career and Employment (BCE) Technical University of Crete 2011 BCE TEI of Athens GENERAL TOTAL 453 Table 5. Internal Evaluation Reports - Pivot Table 1 The total refers to those HEI academic units that award degree titles, including the six postgraduate programmes of study at the International Hellenic University as well as the General Departments, Foreign Language Centres and Physical Education Centres at HEIs. 19

20 Graph 1. Bimonthly progress of Internal Evaluations It is, however, noteworthy that the delays in the approval of funding and the successive financial and administrative impediments that the Authority has faced, not through its own responsibility, since 2009 have resulted in a significant backlog of pending Internal Evaluations, which is continuously increasing as, due to the inherent dysfunctions of the past, the rate of external evaluations cannot keep up with the submission of Internal Evaluation Reports. With the passage of time, this delay has created the need to request that many of the already submitted reports are updated. Many of the requested updates have already been completed, while others are still underway. This new impediment to the external evaluations, since the end of the first half of 2012, for the institutional reasons mentioned above (see above pp ), is expected to exacerbate the problem. Moreover, it must be noted that in a not insignificant number of Internal Evaluation Reports that are submitted, the HQA's completion check has noted small or large gaps that require the completion or revision of the Report by the academic units being evaluated, so as to be able to effectively respond to the criteria and indices of the HQA, which is the main goal of the HEI quality assurance procedures. Problems of such a kind are to be expected given that in the Greek higher education system and the education system in general the practice of evaluation is unknown and, as something novel, was viewed by the HEIs, at least in the beginning, negatively. The first reactions have now been overcome, although this does not mean 20

21 that the concept of "internal evaluation" is always understood as "self-critique", i.e. a critical assessment of all the elements of the academic community in relation to the various functions of the academic units, with proposals for dealing with potential problems, and not simply as a simple description and analysis of data and indices. The Authority made and continues to make efforts to provide continuous support to the academic units, and also promotes in any way the consolidation of the responsibilities of each QAU within its institution (see below p. 37). 21

22 Graph 2. Progress of the submission of Internal Evaluation Reports by HEI academic units /1/ /6/2-12 TOTAL Table 6. Number of Internal Evaluation Reports per year 2 Including the Internal Evaluation Reports of the Centre for Foreign Language Teaching of the AUT, the National School of Public Health and the BCEs of the Technical University of Crete and TEI of Athens. 22

23 Harokopio University Technical University of Crete Panteion University University of Central Greece University of Peloponnese University of Piraeus University of Patras University of Macedonia University of Crete University of Ioannina University of Thessaly University of Western Macedonia University of Western Greece University of the Aegean Athens University of Economics & Business Ionian University Hellenic Open University National Technical University of Athens National & Kapodistrian University of Athens Hellenic International University Democritus University of Thrace Agricultural University of Athens Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Athens School of Fine Arts Internal Evaluation Reports No Internal Evaluation Report submitted Graph 3. Level of completion of Internal Evaluation per university (by ) 23

24 ASPETE TEI of Chalkida TEI of Serres TEI of Piraeus TEI of Patras TEI of Messolonghi TEI of Larissa TEI of Lamia TEI of Crete TEI of Kalamata TEI of Kavala TEI of the Ionian Islands TEI of Thessaloniki TEI of Epirus TEI of Western Macedonia TEI of Athens Internal Evaluation Reports No Internal Evaluation Report submitted Graph 4. Level of completion of Internal Evaluation per TEI (by ) 24

25 HQA annual report External Evaluations The progress of the External Evaluations in the first half of 2012 continued at a similar rate to that of 2011 (see Tables 7-11 and Graphs 5-6). It should be noted that the international reverberations of the financial crisis Greece was facing reduced the enthusiasm of external evaluators for participating in External Evaluation Committees, given their concern for their remuneration. It should be noted that the members of the External Evaluation Committees, although they receive no fee, themselves pay the high price for all their travels and their accommodation in Greece, usually to be remunerated after a delay of one or two months. The serious institutional problems that arose in the first half 2012 as a result of the inability to form a quorum and take lawful decisions regarding the External Evaluations (see above p. 10) have led the Authority to suspending the External Evaluations after the completion of those that have already been lawfully approved. It is stressed that the interruption of the evaluations, in addition to the other problems, creates serious difficulties for those academic units that, although they have submitted an Internal Evaluation Report, have not yet been externally evaluated, as the approval of their research funding and/or postgraduate programmes of study presupposes, in accordance with Law 4009/2011 and/or EU regulations, the completion of their external evaluation. UNIVERSITIES TEI TOTAL st half AUT Centre for Foreign Language Teaching 2011 National School of Public Health 2012 BCE Technical University of Crete 2012 BCE TEI of Athens GENERAL TOTAL 171 Table 7. External Evaluation Reports - Pivot Table Three (3) further external evaluations were completed after the first half of

26 HQA annual report Graph 5. Monthly progress of evaluations and corresponding administrative and institutional problems 26

27 HQA annual report Graph 6. Progress of external evaluations in the period November 2008 June /1/ /6/2-12 TOTAL Table 8. Number of External Evaluations per year 3 Including the evaluations of the Centre for Foreign Language Teaching of the AUT, the National School of Public Health and the BCEs of the Technical University of Crete and TEI of Athens. 27

28 University Table 9. DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EVALUATIONS OF UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC UNITS Total number of academic units in Institution Internal Evaluations (no./%) Internal Evaluations Jan.-June 2012 (no./%) External Evaluations (no./%) External Evaluations Jan.-June 2012 Programmed External Evaluations July- Oct Total number of External Evaluation Reports pending (no./%) Academic units that have NOT submitted an Internal Evaluation Report (no./%) Athens School of Fine Arts 2 0 (0) 2 (100) 0 (0) 0 (0) 2 (100) 0 (0) Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (88.1) 4 (9.52) 12 (28.57) 3 (7.14) 26 (63.41) 1 (2.38) Agricultural University of Athens 7 7 (100) 0 (0) 6 (85.71) 0 (0) 1 (14.29) 0 (0) Democritus University of Thrace (80) 0 (0) 5 (25) 0 (0) 11 (68.75) 4 (20) International Hellenic University 6 0 (0) 6 (100) 0 (0) 0 (0) 6 (100) 0 (0) National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (84.85) 3 (9.09) 7 (21.21) 3 (9.09) 21 (67.74) 2 (6.06) National Technical University of Athens 9 9 (100) 0 (0) 0 (0) 2 (22.22) 7 (77.78) 0 (0) Hellenic Open University 7 7 (100) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 7 (100) 0 (0) Ionian University 7 6 (85.71) 0 (0) 2 (28.57) 1 (14.29) 3 (50) 1 (14.29) Athens University of 8 7 (87.5) 1 (12.5) 1 (12.5) 3 (37.5) 4 (50) 0 (0) Economics and Business University of the Aegean (100) 0 (0) 0 (0) 3 (17.65) 14 (82.35) 0 (0) University of Western Greece 3 3 (100) 0 (0) 0 (0) 1 (33.33) 2 (66.67) 0 (0) University of Western Macedonia 6 2 (33.33) 3 (50) 0 (0) 0 (0) 5 (100) 1 (16.67) 28

29 University of Thessaly (100) 0 (0) 9 (56.25) 1 (6.25) 6 (37.5) 0 (0) University of Ioannina (92.86) 1 (7.14) 6 (42.86) 0 (0) 8 (57.14) 0 (0) University of Crete (100) 0 (0) 10 (58.82) 0 (0) 7 (41.18) 0 (0) University of Macedonia 10 8 (80) 2 (20) 1 (10) 0 (0) 9 (90) 0 (0) University of Patras 22 6 (27.27) 15 (68.18) 2 (9.09) 2 (9.09) 1 17 (80.95) 1 (4.55) University of Piraeus 9 9 (100) 0 (0) 1 (11.11) 3 (33.33) 5 (55.56) 0 (0) University of Peloponnese (100) 0 (0) 2 (20) 0 (0) 8 (80) 0 (0) University of Central Greece 2 1 (50) 1 (50) 1 (50) 0 (0) 1 (50) 0 (0) Panteion University 10 5 (50) 5 (50) 0 (0) 0 (0) 10 (100) 0 (0) Technical University of Crete 6 5 (83.33) 0 (0) 3 (50) 1 (16.67) 1 (20) 1 (16.67) Haropkopio University 4 3 (75) 0 (0) 1 (25) 0 (0) 2 (66.67) 1 (25) Total (80.84) 43 (14.98) 69 (24.04) 23 (8.01) 1 (0.35) 182 (66.42) 13 (4.53) Total 275 (95.82) 93 (32.40) 29

30 Technical Education Institution (TEI) Table 10. DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EVALUATIONS OF TEI ACADEMIC UNITS Total number of academic units in Institution Internal Evaluations (no./%) Internal Evaluations Jan.-June 2012 (no./%) External Evaluations (no./%) External Evaluations Jan.-June 2012 Programmed External Evaluations July- Oct Academic units Total number of that have NOT External submitted an Evaluation Internal Reports pending Evaluation Report (no./%) (no./%) ΤΕΙ of Athens (75.68) 4 (10.81) 14 (37.84) 3 (8.11) 15 (46.88) 5 (13.51) ΤΕΙ of Western Macedonia (60) 2 (10) 6 (30) 1 (5) 7 (50) 6 (30) ΤΕΙ of Epirus 13 7 (53.85) 2 (15.38) 3 (23.08) 1 (7.69) 5 (55.56) 4 (30.77) ΤΕΙ of Thessaloniki (84) 2 (8) 7 (28) 2 (8) 14 (60.87) 2 (8) ΤΕΙ of Ionian Islands 8 0 (0) 1 (12.5) 0 (0) 0 (0) 1 (100) 7 (87.5) ΤΕΙ of Kavala (83.33) 0 (0) 6 (50) 1 (8.33) 3 (30) 2 (16.67) ΤΕΙ of Kalamata 8 1 (12.5) 0 (0) 1 (12.5) 0 (0) 0 (0) 7 (87.5) ΤΕΙ of Crete (80) 2 (10) 6 (30) 2 (10) 10 (55.56) 2 (10) ΤΕΙ of Lamia 8 4 (50) 0 (0) 1 (12.5) 1 (12.5) 2 (50) 4 (50) ΤΕΙ of Larissa 21 9 (42.86) 5 (23.81) 5 (23.81) 3 (14.29) 6 (42.86) 7 (33.33) ΤΕΙ of Messolonghi 8 7 (87.5) 0 (0) 2 (25) 1 (12.5) 1 4 (57.14) 1 (12.5) ΤΕΙ of Patras 17 6 (35.29) 3 (17.65) 0 (0) 0 (0) 1 8 (88.8) 8 (47.06) ΤΕΙ of Piraeus (76.92) 0 (0) 2 (15.38) 1 (7.69) 7 (70) 3 (23.08) ΤΕΙ of Serres 8 6 (75) 0 (0) 2 (25) 2 (25) 2 (33.33) 2 (25) ΤΕΙ of Chalkida 8 3 (37.5) 5 (62.5) 0 (0) 0 (0) 8 (100) 0 (0) ASPETE 7 7 (100) 0 (0) 0 (0) 2 (28.57) 5 (71.43) 0 (0) Total (63.09) 26 (11.16) 55 (23.61) 20 (8.58) 2 (0.85) 97 (41.63) 60 (25.75) Total 173 (74.25) 77 (33.04) 30

31 Table 11. EXTERNAL EVALUATIONS OF OTHER ACADEMIC UNITS Academic Unit Date of evaluation Centre for Foreign Language Teaching, AUT 7/2/ /2/2011 National School of Public Health 13/6/ /6/2011 BEC Technical University of Crete 9/1/ /1/2012 BEC TEI of Athens 9/1/ /1/

32 Ετήσια Έκθεση της HQA ACTIONS IN SUPPORT OF THE HEIS 2.1 Operational Support of the ESPA Action "QAUs" of HEIs. An important aspect of the HQA's supervisory and advisory role in the quality assurance of Higher Education Institutions is the coordination and support for Quality Assurance Units, so that they can adopt the minimal but appropriate best practices for the operation of suitable Information Systems (IS), for the systematic and complete documentation and monitoring of the operations of each HEI, implementing a condition of the "QAU" action for HEIs, which was approved and funded by ESPA, on the recommendation of the HQA. Responsibility for the coordination of the collaboration between QAUs and the HQA for the Information Systems was assigned in 2010 to the head of the HQA's Research and Documentation department, Dr Nikolaos Georgiades. Specifically, the work of this collaboration involves: (a) identifying the data from the IS of the QAUs, which should be transferred to the HQA's central information system, (b) the format of the entered information and data, (c) assistance regarding the architecture and design of the IS, and (d) ensuring the interoperability and direct collaboration between the Information Systems of the institutions and that of the HQA, so that the HQA can have access to and use this data electronically. Within the framework of this collaboration, Dr N. Georgiades undertook a series of collaboration visits/meetings in the first half of 2012 to the QAUs of various HEIs, as follows: Institutions Date 1 University of Western Macedonia Wednesday 11 January (Florina) Thursday 12 January (Kozani) 2 International Hellenic University Wednesday 2 May 3 University of Macedonia Thursday 3 May 4 ΤΕΙ of Thessaloniki Thursday 3 May 5 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Friday 4 May 6 ΤΕΙ of Serres Thursday 31 May 32

33 7 Democritus University of Thrace Friday 1 June (Komotini) 8 ΤΕΙ of Kavala Friday 1 June 9 University of Piraeus Thursday 7 June 10 Harokopio University Wednesday 13 June 11 Agricultural University of Athens Wednesday 19 June 12 Panteion University Wednesday 20 June 13 Athens University of Economics and Business Thursday 21 June 14 ΤΕΙ of Piraeus Friday 22 June The agenda of the meetings included the following topics: Development of the QAU Information System: analysis, design, development, completion, implementation. Architecture of information technology in relation to the aforementioned IS. Presentation of computer applications or description of the architecture and implementation plans. The Information Systems in the Institution that contribute to and participate in the transfer of data to the database of the QAU's IS. User difficulties in communication, use and reception of the applications. Interoperability between the QAUs and the HQA and communication methods. Determining the data to be sent and communication from the IS of the QAUs to the IS of the HQA. Networks of QAUs. The HQA made the following proposals: Data communication between the QAU and HQA Information Systems is designed using XML. XML is widely used for the representation of arbitrary data structures and, with the appropriate interface between applications, data can be accessed. The QAU Information Systems must use web-based technologies and platforms, which support the design of web-based applications, so that the electronic communications between the academic units and the QAU be done through webbased applications. The development of QAU Information Systems in the current phase must be designed in such a way so that 300 structured questions (quality criteria) that 33

34 appear in the HQA Internal Evaluation Report template and are given to the QAUs and academic units of the institutions, can be collected independently as units in the Information System database. The content of the answers to these questions can either be in the form of structured or unstructured data and they should also be stored separately in QAU Information System database. The data collected by the QAU in order to complete the approximately 20 tables included in the Internal Evaluation template, must be collected in a way that secures the, as far as possible, "low" primary level of the information. This will give the QAU's Information System a degree of freedom and they will be able to easily respond to any change in requirements made by the HQA. The provision that should be made in the design of the QAU system is in the future to send the data it uses to create the tables directly to the Information System of the HQA, so that there are corresponding degrees of freedom in the processing of this data by the HQA, with the ability to respond quickly to any unforeseen demands for information. The structure of the Internal Evaluation Report is codified. For the benefit of standardisation and automatic data processing, the content layout should be maintained when being sent to the HQA. Conclusions The following main conclusions arose from the collaboration between the HQA and the QAUs: There is full coordination of understanding and approaching the general architecture of the information and communications technology of the HQA/QAU Information Systems. The Information Systems use web-based technologies and platforms and webbased applications. There is demand for the open design of the QAU Information Systems, with the ability to store primary data, for the flexible collection of broader quantitative data than that proposed by the HQA, so as to be able to respond immediately to new challenges and demands. 34

35 The diversity of the Information Systems in an institution creates difficulties in their communications. The goal of the HQA Information Systems, despite the difficulties, is the automatic selection of quantitative data from the Institution's Information Systems. It is noteworthy that: Each service in an institution had been computerised differently, with a different logic and at a different time. The different approaches by users during completing the data on the same Information System means that the data are not immediately usable, creating an issue of standardisation and data completion, but also difficulties in the communications with the IS of the HQA and the automatic drawing of data. Finally, it was decided that: The development and construction of the Information System of the QAUs will be done internally by each HEI with project resources and not through the procurement of ready-made software or by commissioning a company to build the software. The choice of whether to use printed or electronic student evaluations of courses and teachers is a matter for each institution and depends upon its own policy, practices and data management. The policy platform and decisions for managing procedures in communications with the Information Systems belong to each institute's administration. The IS of the QAU aims to be a lever for the institution's administration in support and decision-making. As for networking between the QAUs, interest was expressed but, paradoxically, there does not appear to be much enthusiasm. The matter requires further consideration. However, the main qualitative factor that emerged from the meetings/collaborations was the interest in coordination and collaboration between the 35

36 Information Systems of the QAUs and that of the HQA. The creation of effective collaborative relationships appears to be achieved more easily with an exchange of views and invitations to small groups and is a guarantee for the success of a goal that will have an immediate impact on the anticipated unified, national Information System for quality in higher education. 2.2 Initiatives in support of the academic units and the QAUs/HEIs A series of visits and/or meetings was carried out, on an initiative of the President, Professor Spyros Amourgis, assisted by Members of the Authority, with the Presidents of QAUs and Presidents of academic units in almost all the country's HEIs with the purpose of promoting Quality Assurance, evaluation methods and the use of best practices. It is also noted that, pursuant to the transitional provision of Law 4009/2011 (article 77, para. 3) the competent service of the HQA inspects on behalf of the academic units the candidates for external experts from abroad in order to approve and include them on the Register of External Experts, which it maintains, so that they can participate, according to the law, in the ensuing developments or elections for members of the teaching and research staff. 36

37 3. ACADEMIC AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 3.1 Participations in Conferences and other activities abroad In order to stay updated on issues of Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), Members and staff of the HQA participated in the following conferences, seminars and workshops organised by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) or other international organisations, often in collaboration with the national quality assurance agencies of other European countries. 37

38 1. Annual ENQA Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) Seminar, 7-8 June Valladolid, Spain. Attended by HQA Member Professor Ioannis Gerothanasis. 2. ΕNQA Workshop - Development of QA procedures and alignment to the ESG, 3-4 May 2012, Belgrade, Serbia. Attended by HQA Member Dr Louiza Loukopoulou. 3. Internal Quality Assurance Group seminar Helsinki 2011, FINHEEC, June 2011, Helsinki, Finland. Attended by HQA scientific collaborator Dr Ioanna Malagardi. 4. ENQA MEMBERS FORUM Impact of Quality Assurance and Independence of Agencies, ΕΝQA-AERES, April 2012, Paris, France. Attended by HQA scientific collaborator Dr Apostolos Dimitropoulos. 5. ΕNQA Workshop, Quality Assurance and Qualifications Frameworks: Exchanging good practice. Organised by the ΕΝQA in collaboration with FETAC, HETAC, IUQB, and the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland, 9-10 February 2012, Dublin, Ireland. Attended by representatives of TEI of Larissa (Prof. P. Ypsilantis) and the AUEB (Prof. E. Yiakoumakis) and HQA collaborator Dimitra Dargenidou. The participants in the above events informed the Planetary and staff of the HQA of the results of the meetings. Related material and presentations by the main speakers have been uploaded to the HQA's website. Moreover, HQA Member Professor Ioannis Vlachos attended the conference of the Greek Society for Horticultural Science held at the Department of Agricultural Sciences, Biotechnology and Food Science of the Cyprus University of Technology in Limassol on 1-4 November 2011, where he presented a paper on "Agricultural Higher Education and Research in Greece". 3.2 Information visits by members of the QAUs (Faculty) and staff of the HQA abroad (ESPA) Information visits by a group of representatives of the University of the Aegean (Kostas Rontos) and the TEI of Patras (Georgia Theodorakopoulou and Dimitra 38

39 Nanousi) to the UPM Technical University of Madrid, the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation of Spain (ANECA) and the Quality, Accreditation and Planning Agency for the Madrid Universities (ACAP), 31/5-4/6/2011, Madrid, Spain. Attended by the head of the Research and Documentation department of the HQA Dr Nikolaos Georgiades. Information visit to the DUBLIN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY and the Irish Universities Quality Board of a group of representatives from the Agricultural University of Athens (G. Papadakis and E. Paplomatas) and the TEI of Western Macaedonia (G. Charalambides and N. Tsounis), 9-10 February 2012, Dublin Ireland. Attended by the head of the HQA's Register of External Experts Smaragda Dermitzaki. 3.3 Participation of Members and staff of the HQA at meetings or events at Greek HEIs on issues of Quality Assurance and Evaluation TEI of Larissa, in collaboration with the University of Thessaly, two-day workshop on "Quality Assurance in Higher Education: its course and prospects", September Presentations were given by the President of HQA, Professor Spyros Amourgis, and HQA Member, Professor Kleomenis Oikonomou. Agricultural University of Athens, workshop on "Quality Assurance in Higher Education", 19 June A presentation was given by HQA Member Professor Petros Soldatos. Ionian University, workshop held by the QAU. Presentation by HQA Member Professor Ioannis Gerothanasis on "Quality Assurance in Higher Education: challenges, present situation and prospects", 23 March TEI of Western Macedonia, workshop held by the QAU. Presentation by HQA Member Professor Ioannis Vlachos on: "Conclusions of external evaluations in HEI Agricultural academic units", 7 June Awareness-raising meetings, organised by the IHY, with presentations from experts of the European Higher Education Area (Bologna Experts), specialised 39