• EADI / Programmes / Dossiers / Dossier on accreditation

Development studies, accreditation and EADI

The “EADI Accreditation Initiative”

On request by the EADI Directors and the EADI Executive Committee, a task force composed of Jacques Forster, Richard Jolly and Hans Opschoor, assisted by Joost Mönks, was set up. It was asked to draft a vision paper with recommendations to EADI on where it wishes to go with quality assurance and accreditation guidelines, especially with a view to the need of criteria for evaluating interdisciplinary programmes in development studies as part of the Bologna process.

Under the Bologna process academic institutions are to set up internal mechanisms of Quality Assurance, and are (to be) subjected to external evaluation and accreditation of their degree programmes by an accreditation agency. The effect of such accreditation will typically be the recognition of the institution's entitlement to issuing degrees, and often also the entitlement to funding from public sources. In this perspective a certain sense of urgency exists among European development institutes that are or will be going through an accreditation process, since they may have to face accreditation frameworks that are not (fully) adapted to the specific (interdisciplinary) nature of development studies (DS). In the emerging European Area for higher education, the EADI institutes wish, where possible, to influence proactively the options for accreditation and quality assurance as far as Development Studies (DS) is concerned.

In this context, the objectives of the vision paper were to:

1) propose a demarcation of the field of developments studies and its distinctive and identifying characteristics as the “object” of accreditation,

2) analyse how DS can fit into (existing) accreditation frameworks and identify in what areas specific criteria and standards for accreditation should be developed, taking account of the specific nature of DS.

3) explore the possible role for EADI in the accreditation process and propose next steps.

The vision paper was presented and discussed in the workshop on accreditation at the EADI General Conference (Bonn 21-23 September 2005).

What is development studies? The paper develops a minimal definition and demarcation of development studies, building in particular around the multi/interdisciplinary and context-sensitivity nature of development studies, its issue and policy orientation, the critical approach it uses and the changing range of central concerns that this field studies addresses. Such a definition of development studies then allows to identify specific criteria that should be considered in the accreditation framework for DS.

How can the accreditation of DS fit into existing national accreditation frameworks?

Based on the reviews of accreditation criteria and processes in three countries (Switzerland, the Netherlands and the UK) the paper concludes that these countries use, to a large extent, similar criteria as well as procedures, which should allow a harmonised integration and deployment of criteria reflecting the specific nature of the field of study. Indeed the national systems seem flexible enough to integrate such criteria and some concrete integration propositions are already contained in the paper.

EADI as European accreditation Agency?

Finally, the paper considered the possible, more or less ambitious, role of EADI in the accreditation process, including the ambitious option to empower EADI to act (inter alia) as an accreditation agency for DS programmes or to have EADI set up one. The taskforce has identified another field (public administration) where accreditation is effectively, at programme level, carried out by a European association. EADI could potentially evolve in a similar direction.

The paper was well received in Bonn and a general consensus emerged to move ahead along the ambitious lines proposed in the vision paper, in which EADI could develop itself as a central body for accreditation for development studies in Europe. More specific next steps were discussed in the Directors Meeting in Bonn and are now actively further pursued by a the new president of EADI (Jean Luc Maurer). The initiative is supported by a number of EADI institutes and a new taskforce is being set up to implement the next steps. Specifically, the EADI accreditation initiative seeks to achieve the following results by the end of 2006:

1. Development of a “Guide for the Evaluation of Development Studies “through the further development standards and benchmarks for criteria and sub-criteria for DS accreditation

2. Development of a “EADI register of DS peer reviewers”, endorsed by EADI directors

3. Elaboration of a vision and an action plan on EADI as actor in accreditation on the European level.

• Bookmark
• Recommend This Page
• 
• RSS 2.0 FEED