Abstract:

The Portuguese higher education system is binary and comprises both public and private institutions. Several reasons stressed the necessity to develop a quality assessment system, namely the passing of the 1988 University Autonomy Act, European trends and some doubts about the quality of the fast developing private sector, (Amaral, Rosa & Tavares, 2007; Rosa, Tavares & Amaral, 2009; Veiga, Rosa, Dias & Amaral, 2013). Thus, from 1993 to 2005, existed an umbrella organization, the Higher Education Assessment National Council, that became responsible for coordinating the national quality system and cooperating with higher education institutions representatives. These institutions, either public, private universities or polytechnics, were the focus in the conduction of study programmes assessment by this Council, mainly oriented to quality improvement. However, after almost a decade of its establishment, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education complained that the external review reports were somewhat unclear, rarely allowing poor quality programmes cancellation (Rosa, Tavares & Amaral, 2006).

In this specific context, the Parliament approved in 2003 a law that created an additional academic accreditation system, as an attempt to introduce new methods and technics of quality monitoring to existing structures, without replacing them (Stensaker, 2003). The implementation of a national system of higher education evaluation and accreditation of was treated in great depth in 2004, in terms of both conceptualization and guiding principles definition. The latter refers to the level of implementation, a work that was closely connected with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and by an accreditation and evaluation agency for higher education. This was the path that would bring exemption to that mission.

The design, creation and implementation of quality assessment and acreditations in higher education assumed the adoption of some measures, aiming to achieve improvements in the quality of national higher education institutions (such as institututes, polithecnics and universities) and providing solid information to society over the performance of those institutions. Consequently, these actions will contribute to the development of an internal quality assurance system, mandatory according to the European framework for the quality assurance in higher education, which Portugal sould comply.

The Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (also known as A3ES), was established in November 2007. The accreditation of higher education institutions and their study cycles is mandatory and can be on the Agency's initiative or from the interested higher education institutions. This study is a literature review on the concepts of quality, evaluation and accreditation, as well as the new quality assurance pattern on higher education.

Keywords:

Higher education, quality assurance, quality assessment, curriculum design, Portugal.