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In this month's edition of World Education News and Reviews, we continue our review of accreditation procedures across Latin America and the Caribbean with a look at developments in Panamá and Nicaragua.
These two Central American nations are both slowly entering the discourse on quality assurance that is growing in the region, but are not as far along in introducing system-wide accreditation practices as a number of neighboring countries. In Nicaragua, growth in the private education sector has prompted heightened competition for student enrollments and a subsequent increase in concerns about accountability and quality at both public and private institutions. In Panama's case, it has taken years of planning to build the capacity to introduce a national accreditation body, and after much preparation it appears that implementation may soon be a reality.
The two overviews in this edition of WENR reveal that both countries have made substantive progress in recent years towards improving academic standards in tertiary education. However, both countries still have a long way to go before quality assurance procedures meeting international standards are fully operational.
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Nicaragua
Consejo Nacional de Universidades (CNU)
Sistema Nacional de Evaluación y Acreditación
Background:
In 1990, the Nicaraguan government passed Law 89 granting academic, financial, and administrative autonomy to the nation’s institutions of higher education. The law also established the National University Council (CNU) as the official coordinating and consulting body for all universities and vocational colleges. The autonomous CNU, not the Nicaraguan Ministry of Education, is charged with enacting national higher-education policy, approving the creation of new universities and vocational colleges, and disseminating State funds directed to higher education. The CNU’s sole function with regards to quality assurance is in the licensing of new private universities. Therefore, Nicaraguan universities function under almost complete autonomy, operating without regulation from a national quality assurance agency.
Nicaragua has ten “old” universities, four of which are public and six private. They are termed “old” universities because they were opened before the ratification of Law 89 in 1990. These ten universities are all recognized by the CNU, and they are considered the core of the Nicaraguan tertiary system, serving more than 50,000 students. However, due to rapidly increasing demand for higher education, and stagnation in the growth of public higher education, more than 44 “new” private universities and colleges have opened since 1990, enrolling approximately 65,000 students.
Developments in Accreditation:
The rapid growth of Nicaragua’s private sector and the contrasting standstill in the public university sector has sparked a national debate over the need to introduce evaluation and accreditation procedures in the tertiary system. Private universities vary wildly in terms of resources, enrollments, quality and infrastructure, while public universities are often characterized as overly bureaucratic, antiquated in their teaching methods and resistant to change. The quality of education in either public or private universities is volatile, a situation that has led to the pursuit by government officials of a national system of accreditation.
In 2001, the Nicaraguan government received a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to facilitate a project that would help introduce a quality assurance system in tertiary education. Beyond the immediate evaluation of the nation’s universities and colleges, another major goal of the project was to develop a permanent national system for the evaluation and accreditation of higher education. Through the IDB program, 33 universities (4 State, 29 private) have participated in a program of internal evaluation and external evaluation, forming the basis for the creation of a national accreditation body. The exercise engendered a new awareness of quality assurance in the nation’s institutions of higher education and required all participating universities and colleges to reevaluate their management, and to compose a plan of action based on the evaluation process.
As it currently stands, the Nicaraguan National System for Evaluation and Accreditation is still in the development process. It is clear, however, that the nation’s higher education establishment has made strides toward making accreditation a priority in the future.
Links to Additional Information:
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Panamá
Universidad de Panamá (UP)
Background:
Under article 95 of the Panamanian Constitution and articles 1 and 13 of Law 11 of 1981, the Academic Council of the University of Panamá is designated as the national body overseeing the process of fiscalización , or approval and regulation of the country’s universities and centers of private tertiary education. All institutions of higher education in Panamá are required to undergo the process of fiscalización to ensure that they comply with minimum quality requirements in the following categories:
- Departmental curriculum for undergraduate and graduate programs
- Academic and administrative structure governing the development of departments or programs of undergraduate and graduate study
- Infrastructure and conditions of academic facilities
- Criteria for the selection of educators and other personnel
Institutions that receive certification through the fiscalización process are granted permission to operate indefinitely assuming they adhere to the original requisites of establishment as outlined above. If an institution is denied certification on its first attempt, a period of time, as dictated by the Academic Council, is given for it to successfully improve any deficiencies. Upon a second denial of certification, the information is made public and the prospective institution is barred from offering recognized degrees. For a list of recognized Panamanian universities consult this page (Spanish) at the Panamanian Council of Rectors website.
Developments in Accreditation:
The Academic Council of the University of Panamá ensures a certain degree of quality control at the nation’s universities and colleges through the certification procedures described above. However, this state-mandated undertaking differs from the development of an official policy for the continuous evaluation and official accreditation of Panamanian tertiary institutions, an approach that is typically voluntary on the part of the institution being assessed, and requires greater oversight as well as expertise in order to be executed. That said, the higher education community of Panamá has made headway over the last decade by participating in the larger Central American regional discourse on accreditation and by taking steps to create an autonomous national accreditation body to maintain quality control in higher education.
The Panamanian Consejo de Rectores (Council of Rectors ) was created by State law in 1997 with the mission of investigating and initiating the implementation of a national accreditation organization. In their strategic plan for the years 1998-2003, the Panamanian Council of Rectors first referenced the establishment of a national system for the evaluation and accreditation of institutions of higher education. Since 1998, the council, assisted by the Ibero-American Network for Accreditation of Quality in Higher Education (RIACES), has participated in numerous activities such as forums and training missions to build the necessary knowledge and human capacity to integrate an accreditation process into national higher education. In November 2006, the National Council for the Evaluation and Accreditation of University Education of Panamá (CONEAUPA) was created by Law 30
of the 20th of July 2006. CONEAUPA has begun the fundamental administrative and logistical courses of action to begin the evaluation of all Panamanian universities and colleges, both public and private.
In the absence of a national accrediting organization, various institutions of higher education in Panamá have undergone accreditation processes instigated internally or conducted by regional accreditation organizations. Universidad de Panamá , Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá and Universidad Autónoma de Chiriqui have initiated internal evaluation procedures as well as external evaluation by regional accreditor SICEVAES, the Central American System of the Evaluation and Accreditation of Higher Education. The University of Panamá has also created a management office for evaluation and accreditation to prepare for future accreditation from CONEAUPA.
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