Quality, a notion in progress

UNESCO recognized access, equity and quality, as the major challenges of higher education in the world in the current context of globalization. Likewise, it encourages all higher education institutions (HEIs) to maintain their role of serving society, community and individuals, and continue to drive education as a public service. This understanding poses universal access as a precondition for its achievement.
The thematic area include programmes and initiatives that favour equality in access to higher education, i.e. that promote access for social groups traditionally excluded from higher education (HE) or with explicit difficulties; positive discrimination policies, scholarship programmes based on prioritisation criteria, policies that promote completion of studies by groups with a high drop-out risk, among other relevant issues of the item.
The key question is how to define quality in different contexts, so that the world’s higher education systems can face the challenge of meeting social commitment. Quality is the result of a set of actions that respond to society’s needs at a particular moment in time. It should be draw on past and ancient knowledge. The definition of quality depends therefore, on a solid cultural background, which is essential to understand a world that is undergoing profound changes. Quality has to be seen as a social construction and, as such, requires reflection, dialogue and a collective effort, especially with regard to training citizens who are committed to strategies to overcome inequality and social injustice and projects to improve the society.
If quality is a multi-dimensional, multi-level concept, and if any process designed to guarantee quality is pervaded by the socio-cultural peculiarities of the institutional, national and regional contexts, then it is unfeasible to try to identify a single valid model.
The main, fundamental commitment of universities is towards quality in their core activities: teaching and research. But university teaching and research must be included in the major objectives of society and in the strategies of the state to establish a fair, developed and democratic nation. This means that universities must promote policies towards the construction of the human bases of social transformation. They must also develop knowledge and transform individuals into citizens that have the cognitive, emotional and social skills and the ethical, cultural and political values and that are coherently committed to building a democratic society.
Efforts to improve the quality of higher education must not fail to consider the criterion of relevance. The main target should be those aspects that endorse the universities’ responsibility and relevance in relation to the changes they undergo.