INNOVATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS ASSESSMENT SYSTEMS

The main of the research was "To analyze the innovation processes that have been carried out in the evaluation systems of the quality of the educational programs at the superior level". This is based on the fact that evaluation has become the basic tool to promote educational quality since the last decade of the 20th century.

Various organisms, such as the National Council of Science and Technology in Mexico (CONACYT) through its National Register of Quality Programs (PNPC) and the National System of Researchers (SNI) promoted quality assessment processes. Other organisms were also created, such as the Council for Accreditation of Engineering Education (CACEI), established in July 1994, and the Accreditation Council for Administrative Sciences, Accountants and Related Matters (CACECA) started in 1996.

Innovation and evaluation are processes whose results are long-term and in the absence of empirical data related to the development of innovation in such systems, in the field of engineering, administrative sciences, and graduate programs, the research question was: Which are the processes of innovation that have been carried out in the different evaluation systems of the quality of the educational programs in the superior level?

The study was of a diagnostic, exploratory, mixed type since the treatment of the data was both quantitative and qualitative, an interview guide was elaborated and the program leaders were interviewed. Innovation was assessed through the characteristics of: Actors, agents, flexibility and impact.

As a comparison element, the progress of the regulations for the evaluation of postgraduate courses applied to institutions belonging to the European Economic Community was reviewed.

Among the results, it was found that the different evaluation systems modernized their processes, including different technologies that have allowed them to systematize the information and make their work more efficient, which facilitates the users both the process of their reports and the knowledge of their status in shorter time.

Comparing the guidelines for the evaluation of graduate programs in the European Economic Community and in Mexico, there was no difference, in both the same categories of evaluation and indicators are incorporated as well as the inclusion of other elements for their evaluation, which were integrated from the academic dynamics as well as from research in the graduate programs, this is relevant since it facilitates academic and research mobility.