Abstract:

In recent years, quality assurance has emerged as a strategic element in the improvement of education within higher education institutions. It is therefore imperative to understand the current landscape of these institutions, where the pursuit of educational excellence has become an undeniable priority.

As national agency for quality assurance, the "Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Agency (A3ES Agency), plays a crucial role in promoting the quality of education in the Portugal’s context, overseeing the evaluation and accreditation of higher education institutions. Over the last 20 years, this Agency has been successful in encouraging higher education institutions to implement integrated quality assurance systems to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of quality processes, thereby promoting educational excellence.

Within the Portuguese higher education context, the military higher education system plays an important role, as it provides military programmes (bachelor's and master's degrees) for future military officers. It is supervised by the Military University Institute, which has several organic units. The Portuguese Naval Academy is one of them, with the aim of training future naval officers. Although it has curricular autonomy, it has struggled with quality assurance. In this context, there has been a noticeable evolution over time, accompanied by an imperative need to continuously improve its quality standards.

In 2023, Ricardo (2023) conducted a case study supported by the Portuguese Naval Academy’s students and faculty to evaluate its quality assurance system. The results revealed space for improvement regarding the quality of teaching and in the system itself. As a result, a new quality assurance system was proposed which promotes student-centred learning processes and is in line with the Navy's Strategic Directive, as well as with quality assurance standards for higher education, both nationally and internationally (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education).

The aim of this study is to further develop the quality processes of the proposed model, to carry out its implementation and to provide operational guidelines for applying for certification of the new quality assurance system at the A3ES Agency in the future. For the present research, the approach includes the analysis of quality models of other nationally recognised higher education institutions and the comparison of their organisational structures with the Portuguese Naval Academy’s one. A qualitative approach was adopted, involving semi-structured interviews with key players from the military higher education system and quality management representatives associated with A3ES.

The results provided a comprehensive insight into the best practices and processes associated with quality assurance systems, delineating requirements, assigning roles and responsibilities to academic positions, and establishing benchmarks. This facilitated a new understanding of quality processes, promoting the implementation of the new quality assurance system and providing guidelines for its certification by the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Agency.

Keywords:

A3ES, assurance systems, certification, higher education, implementation, integrated quality, naval academy, quality assurance, quality processes.