Annals of the University of Oradea: Economic Science (Dec 2011)
SOME STATISTICAL RESULTS REGARDING THE EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY OF THE MASTER EDUCATION
Abstract
The article emphasizes aspects regarding the evaluation of the higher education's quality. In certain countries, the questionnaires regarding quality of the activity of HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) are administrated by specialized institutions led by the Ministry of Education or the university associations. The evaluation principles derive from well-known economic and social theories, evolving even evaluation models (see the SERVQUAL model). As a result of the Bologna Treaty (1999), the European Union has the objective to become an international reference concerning the higher education quality and to be more attractive than in the present for students, professors and researchers from other regions of the world. So as to fulfill these objectives ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) recommends HEIs to include in their development plans regarding quality aspects five principles described in the article. The practical study refers to the results of a questionnaire applied to the master business students from a Romanian university. In order to assess the level of satisfaction of students in relation to the master programme they are involved in, a questionnaire was applied on a sample of 200 such persons. The responses were then analyzed using multidimensional data analysis methods. Out of these, the present research is based on multiple response analysis. In the questionnaire, students were asked to return their level of satisfaction for different aspects related to the educational process they are involved in. The questions were constructed as five-level Likert items. In this way was insured a connection between answers given at each of the questions assessing the quality of the programme. Only 0.2% of the answers given relate to aspects about which the students were not satisfied at all. These answers represent 3.2% of the number of respondents. 30% of the students were slightly satisfied, returning 57 choices of this type. As one can see, the volume of each group increases with the level of satisfaction. The processing of the questionnaire was made on recent economic theories concerning the quality assurance in the university environment, which are briefly presented in the beginning of the article.
