Towards Sustainable Development through Higher Education Quality Assurance
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
- It should be clearly defined whether Quality Assurance Agencies, HEIs or HE QA System is considered.
- How to relate SDGs as a compulsary requirements for HEIs in their QA policies and standards
- Analysis of the findings /results should be tabulated and then discussed in details.
- Global HE trends and recent QAA developments should be included.
- No refernce from ENQA
- Limitation: People who are inactive in social media are excluded. How this is alligned, justified with SDGs?
- Results: AQUA case focuses on one private and one public university. How does this make significant difference in achieving SDGS? Not clearly identified.
- Case of Ukraine: Tabulation of results would be recommended.
- The link / connection between IQA and EQA in tems of SDG achievements could be evaluated.
- The role of the Quality commission in supporting the initiative could be highligted.
- Is there any practical challanges between NAQA and HEIs.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 Comments
- It should be clearly defined whether Quality Assurance Agencies, HEIs or HE QA System is considered.
Response 1: So, the following research questions regarding Quality Assurance Agencies, HEIs and HE QA System are raised and discussed. What is the HE QA System role in sustainable development goals promotion? How could the internal and external quality assurance contribute to SDGs achieving? How do Quality Assurance Agencies address SDGs during external evaluation? How do Ukrainian higher educational institutions consid-er sustainable development goals in their policies and procedures? How to relate SDGs as a compulsary requirements for HEIs in their QA policies and standards? What are the current practices of evaluation and monitoring of the Ukrainian higher education contribution to sustainable development? What steps and actions should be taken Quality Assurance Agencies, HEIs or HE QA System to enhance QA contribution to SDGs?
- Analysis of the findings /results should be tabulated and then discussed in details.
Response 2: The results of this research can be used at national level, at institutional level and at study programme level:
|
National level |
Institutional level |
Study programme level |
|
Recommended: Ø to ensure that the higher education standards include competence relevant to sustainable development goals, including their knowledge, indepth understanding and ability to implement them in everyday life and at working place. Ø these standards should be reflected and integrated into the accreditation criteria to be reviewed and evaluated through the external quality as-surance procedures. Ø to collect and analyse the results of external QA regarding the SDGs and publish outcomes of such analysis at the QA Agencies websites, include them as a separate section into the QA Agencies’ annual reports. Ø to make specific focus during the Agencies’ webinars, expert trainings, include into the guidelines and other publications. |
Recommended: Ø to consider SDGs achieving as a strategic goal and priority of the institutional policy. Ø to include SDGs consideration as one of the requirements during internal quality assurance procedures. Ø to ensure monitoring of the departments’, faculties’, students’ efforts in joining and developing initiatives on SDGs achievements. |
Recommended: Ø to foster continuous enhancement of teaching on the basis of SDGs, Ø to promote the integrating the sustainable development topics into the courses, Ø to encourage team work of academics, non-academic staff, students to implement sustainable development practices and activities at the working places, Ø to establish short trainings to increase environmental responsibility, to promote the higher education mission for SDGs achieving, Ø to share and disseminate the work carried out in sustainable development and quality, Ø to encourage and fund projects devoted to sustainable development, Ø to use environment-friendly technologies (facilities, paper free, sustainable consumption etc.) in the universities. |
- Global HE trends and recent QAA developments should be included.
No refernce from ENQA.
Response 3: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is Global HE trend and recent QAA development. ESD can be understood as a lens that permits us to look critically at how the world is and to envision how it might be, and equips us to deliver that vision [23]. The European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) is an umbrella organisation which represents its members at the European level and internationally, especially in political decision making processes and in co-operations with stakeholder organisations. ENQA has already introduced into their practice the assessment of the ability of universities to prepare their graduates for "green" activities and other activities to ensure sustainable development [].[1]
4.Limitation: People who are inactive in social media are excluded. How this is alligned, justified with SDGs?
Response 4: The limitation of this qualitative study is the fact that participants recruited for the questionnaire represent opinions of only those stakeholders who have access to the Internet, email and are registered on social media. It doesn’t consider the opinion of people who are inactive on social media. Such approach is justified, firstly, because of pandemic restrictions in order to avoid any face-to-face contacts. Secondly, currenly the most stakeholders of higher education are actively involved into the social media and e-communication, so university managers, teachers, students, experts, employers became paeticipants of this research.
- Results: AQUA case focuses on one private and one public university. How does this make significant difference in achieving SDGS? Not clearly identified.
Response 5: AQUA assesses, accredits, and certifies the quality of HE in Andorra in accordance with the European Standards and Guidelines (ESGs). In 2019 its focus is on two universities: a public one (Universitat d’Andorra) and a private one (Universitat Oberta La Salle). Currently, the main supply of higher education in the country is from two universities: a national public university, the Universitat d’Andorra (UdA), and a private online university, the La Salle Open University – Andorra (UOLS). The UdA consists of the Online Studies and University Extension Centre the Health and Education Science Centre, the Health Sciences and Education Centre, the Business and Technology Studies Centre and the International Doctorate School; it offers classroom-based and online studies in the fields of nursing, educational science, IT, business administration, languages, humanities and law. The university’s mission is to meet the country’s needs, and its values include social responsibility, quality and the spirit of critical thinking and innovation. UOLS offers courses in business studies, IT and multimedia, and Lasallian studies. The university is flexible and international, with important values such as inclusive education, solidarity and diversity [22,24].
- Case of Ukraine: Tabulation of results would be recommended. Is there any practical challanges between NAQA and HEIs.
Response 6: The case of Ukraine demonstrates that Ukrainian higher educational institutions understand importance of considering sustainable development goals in their policies. From the other side, this understanding is not actioned in the procedures on the constant basis and often doesn’t lead to practical implementation. In order to improve the practical side of SDGs implementation in the HEIs, it should become a part of HE standard and quality assurance criteria. This will challenge the HEIs in Ukraine to consider the SDGs as important issue to be included into their strategic and other documents as well as to improve internal QA procedures so they review achieving the SDGs study program and university management level.
- The link / connection between IQA and EQA in tems of SDG achievements could be evaluated. The role of the Quality commission in supporting the initiative could be highligted.
Response 7: This study has discussed the current situation of SDG achievements in IQA and EQA as well as provided recommendations how to progress in this direction. The evaluation of the link between IQA and EQA in terms of SDGs achieving is the area for future investigation and further studies in this field.
[1] QA trends and innovations. The European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. Available online: https://www.enqa.eu/news/call-for-contributions-qa-trends-and-innovations/ (accessed on 02 October 2021).
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper presents an interesting topic which fits within the scope of the Education Sciences journal. The study aims to identify the role of higher education quality assurance in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs).
In general, the paper is well organized and presents relevant content. The authors describe and contextualize the aim of the paper with respect to previous existing literature and theoretical background in the field area.
However, several issues need to be considered and revised in the paper.
The methodology is the section which presents greater weaknesses and should be improved. The research methods identified in the study (observation and questionnaire) should be connected to the objectives defined for the study. It is not clear, based on the objectives and research questions, how the methods will achieve the intended objectives of the study.
The three main objectives defined were: to discuss and summarize the best practices of QA agencies in promoting SDGs, - to identify how Ukrainian universities consider SDGs in their policies, to develop recommendations for internal and external quality assurance systems regarding SDGs achievement.
However, these are not clearly linked to the methods for data collection. What was the aim of the questionnaire? What was the aim of the observations? It is not clear how observation, as a research method, was used in the study. It seemed to be a document analysis, as stated in the abstract – “observations of the Ukrainian universities’ publicly available information regarding sustainable development activities at their official web-sites”. Please be more rigorous in the presentation of data.
The research design should be grounded on literature in the field of qualitative research methods, such as case studies. Reference to authors in the research methods field is missing (only one reference is mentioned - Creswell & Poth, 2017).
The information about the structure of the questionnaire (topics or dimensions included) is not clear. Ethical issues and procedures are not explored in the paper. The procedures for data collection and data analysis are not clear and should be carefully described. Information about the participants in the study is also not mentioned or deepened. Please consider adding a table in the paper with this information about the questionnaire and participants.
The results section is organized in two main categories: 1) International Experience on Quality Assurance Systems Contribution to Sustainable Development; 2) Role of Higher Education in Sustainable Development Goals Achievement: Case of Ukraine. However, it is not clear how and why the data analysis is organized in this way and what categories emerged from the analysis of the results from the questionnaire. Please justify and elaborate better.
The discussion and conclusions should answer the research questions / objectives of the study. Please consider including this suggestion. Implications of the study and future work should also be outlined.
Authors should improve the paper and consider these suggestions in the revised version of the paper.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 2 Comments
The paper presents an interesting topic which fits within the scope of the Education Sciences journal. The study aims to identify the role of higher education quality assurance in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). In general, the paper is well organized and presents relevant content. The authors describe and contextualize the aim of the paper with respect to previous existing literature and theoretical background in the field area. However, several issues need to be considered and revised in the paper.
- The methodology is the section which presents greater weaknesses and should be improved. The research methods identified in the study (observation and questionnaire) should be connected to the objectives defined for the study. It is not clear, based on the objectives and research questions, how the methods will achieve the intended objectives of the study. The three main objectives defined were: to discuss and summarize the best practices of QA agencies in promoting SDGs, - to identify how Ukrainian universities consider SDGs in their policies, to develop recommendations for internal and external quality assurance systems regarding SDGs achievement. However, these are not clearly linked to the methods for data collection. What was the aim of the questionnaire? What was the aim of the observations? It is not clear how observation, as a research method, was used in the study. It seemed to be a document analysis, as stated in the abstract – “observations of the Ukrainian universities’ publicly available information regarding sustainable development activities at their official web-sites”. Please be more rigorous in the presentation of data. The research design should be grounded on literature in the field of qualitative research methods, such as case studies. Reference to authors in the research methods field is missing (only one reference is mentioned - Creswell & Poth, 2017). The information about the structure of the questionnaire (topics or dimensions included) is not clear. Ethical issues and procedures are not explored in the paper. The procedures for data collection and data analysis are not clear and should be carefully described. Information about the participants in the study is also not mentioned or deepened. Please consider adding a table in the paper with this information about the questionnaire and participants.
Response 1:
Primary Data Collection and Analysis
The 14 questions questionnaire is developed and disseminated via social media and NAQA contact lists aiming to involve such participants as academics, QA experts, HEIs representatives, universities’ administrations, students, employers. 760 responses are collected. The survey was conducted to study the activities of HEIs in Ukraine to achieve SDGs. The participants of the survey are representatives of Ukrainian HEIs, QA experts, students, employers, as well as all interested parties.
The major objective of the questionnaire is to obtain first-hand feedback on the higher education practices regarding SDGs promoting, understanding, implementation. The structure of the questionnaire included the next questions. What group of stakeholders do you represent? Does achieving SDGs clearly declare in the strategic documents of your higher education institution? Is the contribution of the higher education institution to achievement of SDGs constantly monitored and evaluated? Has your higher education institution the pages devoted to SDGs? Did the results of monitoring the achievement of SDGs publish on the Universities’ web-sites? Does the strategy of quality assurance of educational programs include the achievement of SDGs as one of the key requirements? Does your higher education institution use by SDGs in internal quality assurance procedures? Does your higher education institution provide SDGs at the level of study programmes? Do the study programs provide the acquisition of competencies related to sustainable development? Do the students join initiative to ensure sustainable development?
The questionnaire is offered for identify the role of higher education quality assurance in achieving SDGs, discuss and summarize the best practices of QA agencies in promoting SDGs, identify how Ukrainian universities consider SDGs in their policies, The major objective of the questionnaire is to obtain first-hand feedback on the higher education practices regarding SDGs promoting, understanding, implementation. The collected data set is sufficient since the questionnaire is distributed among wider academic public, representatives of various size and types of universities and stakeholders who are involved into quality assurance from different regions of Ukraine.
2. The results section is organized in two main categories: 1) International Experience on Quality Assurance Systems Contribution to Sustainable Development; 2) Role of Higher Education in Sustainable Development Goals Achievement: Case of Ukraine. However, it is not clear how and why the data analysis is organized in this way and what categories emerged from the analysis of the results from the questionnaire. Please justify and elaborate better.
Response 2:
This study aims to identify the role of higher education quality assurance in achieving sustainable development goals. To support this aim the following objectives are formulated: to discuss and summarize the best practices of QA agencies in promoting SDGs, to identify how Ukrainian universities consider SDGs in their policies, to develop recommendations for internal and external quality assurance systems regarding SDGs achievement.
So, the following research questions regarding Quality Assurance Agencies, HEIs and HE QA System are raised and discussed. What is the HE QA System role in sustainable development goals promotion? How could the internal and external quality assurance contribute to SDGs achieving? How do Quality Assurance Agencies address SDGs during external evaluation? How do Ukrainian higher educational institutions consider sustainable development goals in their policies and procedures? How to relate SDGs as a compulsary requirements for HEIs in their QA policies and standards? What are the current practices of evaluation and monitoring of the Ukrainian higher education contribution to sustainable development? What steps and actions should be taken Quality Assurance Agencies, HEIs or HE QA System to enhance QA contribution to SDGs?
3. The discussion and conclusions should answer the research questions / objectives of the study. Please consider including this suggestion. Implications of the study and future work should also be outlined. Authors should improve the paper and consider these suggestions in the revised version of the paper.
Response 3:.
The results of the research can be used at national level - the higher education standards should include competence in sustainable development goals, at institutional level - to HEIs quality assurance system – include SDGs consideration as one of the requirements during internal quality assurance procedures, at study programme level.
This study has discussed the current situation of SDG achievements in IQA and EQA as well as provided recommendations how to progress in this direction. The evaluation of the link between IQA and EQA in terms of SDGs achieving is the area for future investigation and further studies in this field.
Future work will relate to development of the methodology for determining the criteria of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals at national level, at institutional level, at study programme level.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
