Development and validation of a model of university quality as a base for its evaluation

Abstract

This article starts considering different conceptions of quality used in the texts about the subject in order to propose a model of quality which tries to break the isolated conderation of specific characteristics of different components (context, input, process, product and aims of the system). Thus, quality of education could be defined by a set of coherence relations among the components of a sistemic model. Although the model refers to the university in this article, it can be applied to any other educational level, considering the logical differences concerning the variables to take account of such as, for instance, the aims. In the second part of this article an evaluation project of the Escuela Superior Técnica de Ingenieros de Minas (Madrid) is presented; it is based on the proposed model of quality which allows us to test it so as to validate it later. Along the execution of the study the variables under scrutiny were identified and defined. At the moment they are being valued by the Escuela de Minas staff, as a previous phase to writing the measurement instruments.