Effects of the evaluation and accreditation processes on academics. A case study of a Colombian higher education institution

Abstract

The implementation of public evaluation and accreditation policies by Colombian higher education institutions, suggests the imminent adoption of a new university model that introduces market logic and modifies their substantive functions, which has a direct effect on the role of academic actors, without evident resistance to internalizing a new form of institutional life. This study applies a historical-organizational qualitative method to investigate such problem at a public higher education institution in Colombia. The results show that the institution reconfigured its history and implemented guidelines established by public policies that underlie a perspective of higher education management based on international proposals where New Public Management (NPM) and governance generate different dynamics that modify the rules of the game by overvaluing the research function and giving new meaning to the work of academics in a logic of scientific production to achieve objectives that improve the reputation and positioning of the institution in national and international rankings.