Effects of accreditation on the quality of the education program: Perspective of university students and teachers in the area of education

Abstract

TThe results of an exploratory-descriptive study, with a prospective and cross-sectional design, are reported. The objective was to analyze the opinion of university students and teachers about the effect of the accreditation process on the quality of their educational program. A voluntary and intentional sample of 72 students and 30 teachers from the education department of ​​a public university in northwest Mexico was used. The results show that both students and teachers agree on the knowledge they have about the accreditation process and the effect it has on the quality of educational programs. Likewise, they show positive levels of satisfaction regarding the operation of the educational program, considering access to academic information systems and the offer of postgraduate programs to continue their studies. Although students affirm that accreditation has a positive effect on the academic performance of their teachers, teachers do not observe a greater effect of this process on their knowledge and improvement of teaching strategies or learning assessment. It is concluded that although the literature highlights the importance of the formative function of the accreditation processes of educational programs, broader and more representative studies are required, from different areas of knowledge and with greater diversity of research methods, to analyze the effect that accreditation processes have on the quality of educational programs in higher education.