Advising on academic quality: ready with numbers

Abstract

Degree validation is a delicate business. Validation teams have to ensure that the institution or the degree being validated meets academic quality standards. Often this means standards in two different countries with different traditions. This paper describes how the qualitative information contained in a validation document was translated into a set of variables and analysed using multivariate statistical methods. The methods employed had to be transparent to the institution being validated and to other members of the validation team, and had to form the basis for a qualitative discussion and for a set of recommendations. The tools employed are based on multidimensional scaling, cluster analysis, and multiple regression methods, all of them resulting in graphical representations. The paper illustrates the use of quantitative tools in a qualitative way. Operational Research tools are used as a way of facilitating the analysis and decision process.