A Longitudinal Study of Effectiveness, Impact, and Challenges in the Japanese Quality Assurance System
Abstract
Higher education has seen a concern about improvement of the quality of external quality assurance. The Certified Evaluation and Accreditation (CEA), a Japanese quality assurance system, is currently in the middle stage of its second cycle and in discussion to improve its quality in the next cycle. In order to inform the development of a future system, this study aimed to explore how universities perceived the effectiveness, impact, and challenges of the CEA system and practices and how these changed between the first and the second CEA cycles. Questionnaire surveys of the evaluation methods and arrangements, process, effectiveness, and matters of CEA system were administered to 52 universities accredited by the National Institution for Academic Degrees and Quality Enhancement of Higher Education immediately after the evaluation in the first and the second cycle. The universities’ responses in the two cycles were analyzed and compared. Statistical analyses revealed changes in their perception which related to “effectiveness in helping quality enhancement,” “gaining public understanding and support,” and “evaluation exhaustion (workload).” The implications of these changes for the growth of the CEA system were discussed.
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