Progress Report November 2006
Guide for the EADI Peer Review of Development Studies
In Brighton the draft “Guide for the EADI Peer Review of Development Studies”, prepared by the second taskforce of the “EADI accreditation initiative” (composed of Louk de la Rive Box, ISS-The Hague, Michel Carton, IUED-Geneva, Filip Reyntjens, IDPM-University of Antwerp, Nadarajah Shanmugaratnam, Norwegian University of Life Sciences -UMB and Joost Mönks , secretary taskforce) was presented. This guide contains the basic proposed criteria for the Peer Review of Development Studies Programmes by EADI. The specific objectives of the guide are:
- To define a set a coherent set of normative reference points as basis for self-evaluation and the subsequent external visitations of DS programmes. These external visitations or “peer reviews” constitute a central element in the external quality assurance of DS programmes.
- To offer this guide 1) as an authoritative European reference guide in the frame of national accreditation processes and 2) as professional minimal standard setting guide by EADI, for universities, student and external stakeholders.
-To define sufficiently discriminatory minimal quality standards in order to both clearly delimit the field of Development Studies and to improve the quality of DS programmes
- To adopt a “learning by doing” approach for the further refinement of specific DS criteria.
A number of important question were raised in Brighton, including questions regarding the term accreditation as such, the differentiation of content and process criteria, the eligibility of development programmes with a strong monodisciplinary focus (such as development economics), and the added value of an EADI accreditation. The taskforce proposed to proceed through a first “mock peer review” which should then be thoroughly evaluated before deciding on further steps, including on the possible development of an “EADI Quality Assurance System”.
EADI Newsletter 2/2006
