Abstract:

Quality manuals have been a priority in higher education in Portugal, where the legal framework mentions that the quality of education exists when a number of rules are fulfilled. Compliance with the Quality System in Portuguese Higher Education, which is associated with the elaboration and implementation of the Quality Manual, is mandatory and is an essential requirement to keep Higher Education Institutions functioning.

This research work aims to carry out a study that list on the one hand, the parameters inherent to the quality proposed by the entity that regulates it (Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Agency - A3ES) such as the requirement of high levels of academic research, and on the other hand, the criteria that are considered as synonymous with quality teaching for students, such as the pedagogical performance of the teacher.

The literature review reveals that quality in Portuguese higher education is not much studied. Studies on quality in higher education have been found in Latin America (Acioli & de Oliveira, 2016), Brazil (Durham, 2018; dos Santos et al, 2017), and some research compares the Quality System defined in Europe and in other countries such as Brazil and Mexico (Abdalla, 2016).

Some studies were found on quality in Portuguese higher education in general (Caeiro & Caetano, 2019; Antunes et al., 2018; Aleixo et al., 2018) and in particular on quality in private higher education in Portugal (Seixas, 2000).

The research methodology used includes literature review, content analysis, and quantitative methodology through the application of questionnaires to university students.

The study results suggest a difference regarding the concept of quality implemented according to the standards of the Quality System developed for Portuguese universities and which is applied internally through the Quality Manual, and the concept of higher education quality of the point of view of university students who refer to parameters such as the importance of the quality of the teacher's pedagogical performance in the classroom.

Keywords:

Quality, Higher Education, Portugal, ISG.