This essay will focus on the issue of the link that accrediting and evaluating bodies have with Higher education, so its development in the country is due to the work planned, systematized and carried out by the Secretary of Higher Education, as well as the Accrediting bodies that help in the task of improving the actions that educational programs must comply with to raise the quality of higher education in the country.
For this, it is important to analyze the terms of these elements such as evaluation and accreditation, in the first place the evaluation is referred to as a systemic and objective activity or process, of identification, collection or processing of data on educational elements or facts, with the objective of interpreting them, assessing them and, on this assessment, making decisions (García Ramos, 1989)
Due to the above, evaluation has become fundamental to grant funding to educational projects and programs, especially at the higher level, by the federal government.
In a traditional way, the term evaluation has been applied to the school performance of students, considering the thematic contents (knowledge) acquired by them in the teaching processes.
However, from the 1960s on, evaluation has been extended to other educational areas such as: attitudes, skills and abilities developed by students, educational programs, teaching materials, teaching activities, processes educational and administrative, the educational institution, the educational system in general and the evaluation process itself.
So currently, not only the student is subject to evaluation, but also teachers, managers, administrators, educational institutions, academic and administrative processes, among others.
On the other hand, the author Pallán (1995) affirms that accreditation is a “procedure whose objective is to compare the degree of closeness of the analyzed object with a set of previously defined and implemented norms as desirable. It implies the public recognition that an institution or an educational program meets certain quality criteria and, therefore, is reliable.
Martínez, María (2008) declares: “we understand by accreditation the form of regulation, whose main purpose is to guarantee that HEIs comply with a series of standards, criteria and commitments acquired with society as a whole.
Therefore, I can understand from these two authors that accreditation not only judges the quality of one or more programs of an HEI, but also the recognition in society in order to improve the services offered by HEIs and in turn respond mainly to the demands of society.
Likewise, for this type of accreditation and evaluations to be carried out for the higher level, it is important to mention that the actors involved in the process stand out: managers, professors and researchers for knowing and implementing the procedure in order to obtain the certification and subsequently the accreditation of educational programs and thus benefit from the federal resources that are sorely lacking in higher education institutions in the country.
In the 1970s, the first activities on the evaluation of higher education in Mexico began, which were promoted by different policies and programs of the Federal Government through the Secretary of Public Education (SEP) as well as the National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education (ANUIES), likewise with the 1989/1994 "Educational Modernization" program in which the evaluation of Higher education in Mexico was formalized, carrying out internal and external evaluation activities in order to improve quality of the different programs of the educational institutions of the country.
By the eighties, evaluation became more important not only in Mexico but also at the international level, and it was all thanks to the policies and programs undertaken by governments that were supported by international organizations such as UNESCO and the OCD. The purpose of these policies was the accreditation of academic programs, as a means to guarantee and recognize the quality of higher education.
It has been said that in Mexico one of the great challenges facing education is to raise its quality, which is why the educational authorities have proposed permanent evaluation processes for this purpose.
With these types of accreditations and evaluations, the aim is to make the educational system and the institutions that comprise it more efficient, thereby responding to the demands required by the economic globalization in which the country is immersed.
The evaluation and accreditation systems for higher education in most countries of the world are currently part of governments, academic organizations, associations of institutions, as well as professionals and employers. Currently, evaluation and accreditation are considered very important terms when talking about educational quality in higher education.
In the case of evaluation, this function is in charge of the CIEES, and matters concerning accreditation are regulated by COPAES. Currently, the CIEES are made up of nine collegiate bodies and 2184 programs have been reported at level 1 (programs with a high degree of development and consolidation). With regard to accreditation, COPAES has recognized 26 accrediting bodies and reports 1637 accredited educational programs.
With regard to the CIEES, it is important to note that these committees were instituted in 1991 by CONPES and have focused their action on the diagnostic evaluation of educational programs and institutional functions, through academic peers. This evaluation does not have the function of accrediting higher education programs and institutions, but it makes relevant the application of evaluation processes aimed at the accreditation of academic programs and educational institutions in which they carry out their diagnostic evaluations, that is, it makes it possible to transcend from diagnostic evaluation to accreditation.
One of the most important objectives of the CIEES is to contribute to the improvement of the quality of higher education in Mexico, through the diagnostic evaluation of the institutional functions of the programs offered in the institutions of this level of studies; Providing that the academic and pedagogical organization models guide learning as a process throughout life, focused on the analysis, interpretation and good use of information rather than its accumulation.
The CIEES established three levels to classify the evaluated programs:
- Level 1, are programs that have the possibility of achieving accreditation (in a period of 1 to 2 years), having an appreciable degree of development and consolidation. Level 2, are programs that have the possibility of achieving accreditation in the medium term (2 to 3 years), with an intermediate degree of development. Level 3, are programs that have the possibility of achieving long-term accreditation, with a poor or very poor degree of development.
On the other hand, the Secretary of Public Education (SEP) and ANUIES agreed to the creation in 2000 of the Council for the Accreditation of Higher Education AC (COPAES), as an "institution qualified and recognized by the federal government, through the Ministry of Public Education, to confer formal recognition in favor of organizations whose purpose is to accredit academic programs of higher education offered by public and private institutions (Aréchiga, 2003), after evaluating their organizational, technical and operational capacity, their frameworks of evaluation for the accreditation of academic programs, the administration of its procedures and its impartiality.
Some of the functions that COPAES has are:
- Develop guidelines and criteria to formally recognize accrediting organizations for academic programs Formulate a general framework for the accreditation processes for academic programs Formally evaluate organizations that request recognition as accrediting bodies for academic programs Make public the list of accrediting bodies recognized by the Council.
The accrediting bodies recognized by COPAES (until February 2009) are 26 of which I will mention some:
- Council for the Accreditation of Engineering Education. AC (CACEI) National Council of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics Education, AC (CONEVET). Mexican Council for the Accreditation of Medical Education, AC (COMAEM). National Association of Professionals of the Sea, AC (ANPROMAR). Mexican Committee of Accreditation of Agronomic Education, AC (CNEIP) Council for Accreditation of Teaching in Accounting and Administration, AC (CACECA) National Council of Dental Education, AC (CONAEDO) Association for Accreditation and Certification of Social Sciences, AC (ACCECISE).
Based on this research, it is important to highlight that the evaluation precedes the accreditation, that is, based on the information and elements of judgment obtained in the evaluation process, the accreditation is carried out and both are aimed at the general improvement in the quality of higher education systems, where accreditation is one of the most important quality assurance mechanisms.
Although it is true that educational evaluation and accreditation are two very different processes, since the first, being institutional, refers to the practice of a series of procedures and actions that lead to the issuance of value judgments on the different elements that intervene in the educational process for what was already mentioned above, while the second is the social process that allows to make public the quality levels under which this educational process is carried out.
In a general way, I can say that the relationship between evaluation and accreditation are very necessary concepts to measure quality in higher education and, in turn, are recognized for the fact that they help to improve it, although they are very important processes. different
If evaluation and accreditation are not carried out in higher education institutions, there would be no improvement in study plans and programs, there would be no progress in the faculty base as well as in their planning processes and finally, students could not continue their studies.
I consider it important to ensure that the evaluation of the CIEES and the accreditation bodies continues to show its permanence, since it will be the only option to promote the creation of a true system based on good quality education and that these bodies and programs are evaluated by expert committees.
There is no doubt that in Mexico there have been notable advances in the standardization of the evaluation and accreditation processes of the IES, however, a true National Evaluation System has not yet been consolidated, which amalgamates educational policies and the joint effort of the IES.
The greatest challenge of these processes is to ensure that all students can carry out their studies in accredited programs, for which it is necessary to give continuity and strengthen the policies and instruments currently in force for this purpose.
These evaluation and accreditation processes are not easy, they involve great efforts and changes in some existing processes, however, with the commitment of the educational authorities, the institutions involved and the enthusiastic participation of the educational community, it is understood that this could be a reality in the near future.
Download the original file
