Abstract:

The main purpose of this paper is the discussion of experiences arisen from a two-year-long peer review of teaching program conducted at a Hungarian university. The program included more than 40 reviewed courses, 60 lecturers and also involved altogether more than 80 lecturers taking part as peer reviewers. The courses involved in the peer review program were part of business, engineering management, and communication and media science bachelor programs. The evaluation methodology of the peer review program was based on questionnaires covering the semester-long teaching process, since not only the classroom performance was evaluated, but its focus also covered course outlines, applied teaching materials, course requirements, consultations and processes of student evaluations. The primary goal of the program on the level of individual lecturers was to motivate them to improve their teaching practices, and on the level of the staff was to develop the quality culture of teaching processes. In this paper the methodology of the program and overall quantitative results are discussed. Specific peer review results are compared to the results originating from the university’s regular end-of-the term course evaluations.

As a general conclusion it is to be emphasized that such a comprehensive university peer review of teaching program could provide a balanced feedback both to teachers on their strengths and weaknesses and also to the academic staff and management on best practices and general problems.

Keywords:

Higher education, peer review, quality management, best practices, course evaluation.