Abstract:

Academia has witnessed the spread of a wide gamut of terms, ideas, policies, processes, and practices related to higher education (HE) for the last decades. A variety of terms and acronyms fill the higher education space: instruction quality, university rankings, competency-based learning, challenge-based learning, active learning, problem-based learning, service-learning, critical thinking, design thinking, student engagement, collaborative or cooperative learning, digital transformation, sustainability, etc. somehow becoming a conundrum for implied stakeholders. HE has been experiencing a digital transformation, a mind-shift, and a rethinking, and hence is undergoing challenges and rapid changes, increasingly impacted after the COVID 19 pandemic outbreak.

There is broad agreement that education should be engaging for learners as it is associated with academic success; also, using digital technology in the classroom may influence student engagement. The widespread in-class use of digital devices has influenced student experience and soared since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. However, their effectiveness in higher education settings needs further research. The ways students use digital devices to learn, communicate among themselves or to instructors are under research. Likewise, instructors must achieve digital competencies to address the current transformative processes as teaching practices can no longer rely on passive blackboard-based lectures, which hinder skill development and competence achievements. Hence, both instructors and course designs must adapt to the new scenario. Digital technology can become a powerful tool to boost evidence-based teaching and experiential learning in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. For instance, tablets have become valuable tools for creative teaching in STEM modules. Furthermore, learners can replicate with simulation software the phenomena they have observed once earlier in the lab practices.

In addition, increasing attention is devoted to the pillars that lie behind behavioural engagement, since it positively influences factors such as school attendance rates, confidence, achievement, a sense of belongingness, and learning outcomes.

This study focuses on the dimensions encompassed by some quality measuring approaches, in order to raise a reflection on the criteria and parameters employed to either measure instruction quality or rank universities. The most well-known university rankings rely on composite indexes that lie far from the criteria used by accreditation agencies to recognize and validate university curricula.

The findings suggest various aspects as valuable instruments to adapt the first university mission, i.e., disseminating knowledge, to a rapidly evolving higher education framework with the aim of instruction quality. Thus, digital technology, the need to shift to evidence-based and learner-centered teaching practices, active learning and formative assessment, and service-learning approach, among others, may emerge as a core issue to adapt instruction amidst the competing pressures in engineering education.

Keywords:

Higher education quality, University rankings, active learning, undergraduate instruction, predatory publishing, sustainable higher education.