Defining excellencein higher education

Cristina Bojan and Sonia PavlenkoBabeș-Bolyai University

Agenda

Definitions Standards Framework / Matrix ERA LERU Critical aspects

Definitions core definition Excellence means exhibiting characteristics that are

very good and, implicitly, not achievable by all.

explanatory context Excellence enshrines one meaning of quality: a

traditional view that associates quality with the exceptional.

The exceptional view sees quality as something special. Traditionally, quality refers to something distinctive and élitist, and, in educational terms is linked to notions of excellence, of ‘high quality’ beyond that to which most institutions or scholars can aspire.

Harvey and Green, 1993, seeing excellence as one of the five definitions of quality

Definitions The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council

(2000) Excellence is generally taken to mean outstanding,

or of a quality that surpasses a defined threshold in a particular field. [Excellence in research is measured] by assessing research against assumed measures of international excellence. It does not however seek to benchmark quality against international comparators since there are no internationally agreed measures of quality.

Excellence is defined as exceptionally good performance in all areas of management.

the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Qualität e.V., The Power of Quality, 2005

Harvey and Green (1993) further develop the notion of quality as excellence as follows:

Quality as exceptional The exceptional notion of quality sees it as

something special. There are three variations on this. the traditional notion of quality as distinctive; a view of quality as  exceeding very high

standards (or ‘excellence’); a weaker notion of exceptional quality, as passing

a set of required (minimum) standards.

Standards The US operate with the following set of standards, organized

according to the type of context these belong to:

Institutional context Mission and Goals Planning, Resource

Allocation, and Institutional Renewal

Institutional Resources Leadership and

Governance Administration Integrity Institutional Assessment

Educational Effectiveness Student Admission and

Retention Student Support Services Faculty Educational Offerings General Education Related Educational

Activities Assessment of Student

Learning

Brent Ruben’s Framework

Achieving excellence

Indicators of Excellence

Excellence Matrix Willard R Daggett suggests defining

excellence through a matrix that would measure rigor and relevance, in order to identify the excellence

His Matrix may be applied to standards, curriculum,

instruction and evaluation allows for any institution to set up their own

standards of excellence, as well as aims and goals

Excellence Matrix

GREEN PAPERThe European Research Area: New Perspectives

An adequate flow of competent researchers World-class research infrastructures, Excellent research institutions Effective knowledge-sharing Well-coordinated research programmes A wide opening of the European Research

Area to the world

{SEC(2007) 412}

LERU – excellence in research training www.leru.org Principles guaranteeing the quality/excellence of

research (doctoral) training Structures and infrastructures Admission Supervision Introduction into the scientific community Transferable skills Research and teaching Thesis and final evaluation Partnerships - Links to business and industry

Recommendations for actors and stakeholders

Critical aspects Mass education versus excellent performance

Not all universities can or should achieve excellence

Examples: Germany – Exzellenz Initiative USA – 7016 universities, 1640 ofering MA programmes

and only 614 PhD programmes Trying to achieve world-class status may lead to

favouring hard sciences (easier to quantify and evaluate) to the detriment of soft sciences

“Is excellence becoming too common?”

Thank you for your attention!

sonia.pavlenko@euro.ubbcluj.ro bojanc@euro.ubbcluj.ro