Academic achievement in public higher education quality – A study on the effects of teachers’ commitment, teaching and evaluation methodologies in Nursing and Management degrees students.

Abstract

The huge development of science and technology and the political, social and economic changes that characterize post-modern societies, demand from education systems a quality formation for all citizens. The great challenge of the XXI century in education is not only to ensure the acquisition of a range of varied and current competencies, but also to guarantee the quality of learning. Therefore, the quality of education is a major concern to governments, politicians, academics and researchers and has been an issue widely discussed in scientific meetings and studied in several education research programs in different countries in the Western world. The results of research on education quality show a positive correlation between students’ academic performance and education quality. However, we must go further, it is necessary to research quality indicators, to understand how students perceive education quality. In order to achieve these goals, we developed an exploratory study with students from different higher education institutions in Portugal. Data sampling consists in students of different courses of higher education in Alentejo (Portugal). Data collection was conducted through a survey questionnaire. This work presents the analysis of students’ representations of quality, in Nursing and Management degrees in the University of Évora and in Beja Polytechnic Institute, under three dimensions: teacher’s commitment, teaching methodology and evaluation methodologies, as to relate the influence of these variables with the academic success of students.