Accreditation in higher education: Does disciplinary matter?

Abstract Quality assurance in higher education has developed and has been totally reformed in the last decades. In particular, in Italy the AVA system (Autovalutazione, Valutazione e Accreditamento, in English self-evaluation, evaluation and accreditation) was used in 2016 to verify the performance of 118 randomly selected university study programmes (SPs). This study investigated the relationship between quality performance (AVA evaluation) and discipline areas with the aim of understanding the ‘quality mechanism’ thus determining whether some disciplines perform better in quality assurance processes. A strong correlation between technical/engineering SPs and good quality assurance results was found, probably because quality expertise is particularly developed in these disciplines. The creation, for each university of an expert’s unit constituted by professionals with a technical/engineering mentality to monitor and improve quality, is therefore recommended.