The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) and the evaluation of Quality in a Public Service: Case Study of Academic Services of the University of Évora, Portugal

Abstract

Society is more and more demanding on professional terms. Therefore, in order to achieve Excellence we need to go though processes of continuous improvement and we need to measure and to evaluate Quality which is increasingly seen as a competitive and distinguishing factor between institutions. And institutions from Public Sector like Universities are no exception. It’s urgent to evaluate their quality. But a question remains: how do we evaluate them? Why is it important? Should we evaluate the graduate and post-graduate degrees, the services that support all the University,…What? In Portugal it is compulsory to evaluate the quality of the degrees taught on a Higher Education Institution. For that purpose a set of legislation has been approved: Law n.º38/94 of 21st November, Decree-law n.º205/98 of 11th July and Law n.º1/2003 of 6th January. But if this is a compulsory procedure, shouldn’t the structures that support all the life of a Higher Education Institution also be evaluated? What happens if, for instance, the Academic Services don’t work properly or collapse? This service is considered as essential and fundamental on Higher Education Institutions.