Abstract:

Quality assurance has become increasingly important, spanning beyond the corporate realm to encompass education. In higher education, it serves as a cornerstone of initiatives like the Lisbon Strategy and the Bologna agenda, aimed at fostering a globally competitive knowledge economy. Higher education institutions (HEIs) play a pivotal role in society by delivering high-quality education, conducting impactful research, fostering innovation, engaging with communities, and providing public services. In this context, quality assurance is a holistic approach covering all the macro processes and processes in a HEI, in order to serve the students and other stakeholders in expected quality standards, contributing to improve student learning outcomes, institutional reputation and recognition, efficiency, transparency and accountability. The growing focus on quality across various aspects of HEIs, including teaching, research, institutional strategies, and services, has led to discussions on implementing quality management techniques. Effective quality assurance systems offer methods for enhancing transparency and facilitating evidence-based evaluation of an institution's societal impact. HEIs utilize a range of national quality assurance programs and internal institutional systems to manage quality, integrating them in diverse ways to improve management practices.

At the same time, quality assurance in HEI is intrinsically related to the accreditation of both institutions and courses and with the external establishment and evaluation of key performance indicators that are used to assess the performance in crucial areas such as student outcomes, teachers engagement and research productivity and effectiveness.

This paper focus on the development and implementation of a tailor-made quality assurance system in a private polytechnic HEI in Lisbon, Portugal – ISEC Lisbon –, based on the adaptation of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG_2015) and on the Portuguese Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Agency - A3ES-, adaptation through the referential ASIG_2016.

Using qualitative research methods such as document and content analysis this paper explores the process to ensure compliance with national and European quality standards while tailoring the system to its specific needs and context. Through document and content analysis, the paper examines the adaptation of these standards and guidelines to the institution's policies, procedures, and practices, and the evolution of recommendations and improvements suggestions made by the accreditation agency, as well as a meta-analysis of the system today. Additionally, quantitative analysis gives a perspective on the faculty, and students insights into the system. The findings highlight the importance of simple, effective and transparent instruments. Furthermore, the paper discusses the implications of the quality assurance system for enhancing the institution’s performance. Overall, this study contributes to the literature on quality assurance in higher education by offering a case study of tailored implementation in a specific institutional context, shedding light on best practices and lessons learned for other HEIs seeking to enhance their quality assurance processes.

Keywords:

Quality Assurance, Quality Management, Higher Education, Strategic Management.