Abstract:

The article concerns the problem of the education process evaluation as the basis for Poland's higher education programs management.

The first part demonstrates formal conditions affecting the necessity of higher education programs management and education quality monitoring. To adjust the higher education in Poland to the guidelines of the Bologna Process, considerable changes have been introduced to the regulations conditioning the operation of higher education facilities. Education standards have been eliminated to provide the higher education facility programs autonomy in creating the majors and developing their programs. Such system gives a possibility of individual education offer formation following a common methodology under the external supervision system; the accreditation. One shall still consider the market needs as well as the expectations of employers and the students themselves. What is essential is an ongoing adaptation of the syllabuses to the changing needs of the environment, which is to guarantee an adequate quality and usefulness of the studies.

The regulations recommend the application of education programs monitoring mechanisms. However, the specific solutions are missing, while the existing descriptions of good practices provide only a general outline of the concept with no specific proposals. An essential problem and challenge for program councils is to develop cohesive education program evaluation tools which would facilitate programs improvement. The second part of the article covers the original concept of the major evaluation system the implementation of which is to identify the scope of changes which are necessary to be introduced into education programs at the Faculty of Management, the UTP University of Science and Technology. The concept involves the tools and the procedure of monitoring programs and education effects. Program evaluation tools have been proposed both for students and employers, which is to ensure identifying individual needs and job market expectations.

The last part of the article presents the education program evaluation tools design. There are provided detailed descriptions of the survey questionnaires addressed to three groups: students, graduates and employers. Research performed among students is to demonstrate the opinions of the students with their education still underway applying the ongoing evaluation of the education program. The research performed among the graduates is to facilitate a comprehensive evaluation of the education program and the program implementation methods. The opinions of the employers who employ students or graduates of the major under study are to create a possibility of educational effects evaluation. The already existing evaluation tools are shown; e.g. the class evaluation survey, to be included to the education programs evaluation system being designed.

The conclusions from the analysis and regulations and literature justify the need of the ongoing education programs monitoring. It is necessary to develop a cohesive education programs evaluation system, composed of various complementary elements, which would not only facilitate the evaluation of the existing program but also point to specific changes to improve it. The authors recommend researching the opinions of not only the education process participants but also the employers evaluating the education effectiveness based on the graduates competencies.

Keywords:

Higher education, education programs, evaluation, accreditation, Bologna process.