Assessing the Quality of the Bachelor Degree Courses: An Analysis of their Effects on Students' Acquisition of Economic Content Knowledge

Abstract

Quality development in higher education (HE) relies on the assessment, evaluation, and optimisation of university teaching. Only a few studies have evaluated the new bachelor (BA) and master (MA) degree courses in Germany based on an objective measurement of key performance indicators, such as students' knowledge acquisition. To address this research deficit, students' content knowledge of business and economic (b&e) was assessed in a longitudinal study. Results of students in the BA/MA study model were compared to those of students in the former Diplom study model while many potential structural and personal influence factors were controlled. This paper presents in detail the findings and discusses their implications for quality assurance and performance assessment in HE. 21.03.2014 | Roland Happ & Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia (Mainz)

Keywords

• Bologna reform
• output and outcome orientation
• quality development in higher education teaching
• performance evaluation