Le pilotage par la qualité dans l'enseignement supérieur

The project for the HES-SO Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale, as for all recognised higher education institutions according to the old legal bases, is a major one. It is a confirmation of the institution's position in the landscape of higher education in Switzerland at tertiary A level.

Obligation du système qualité
Institutional accreditation represents an agreement between the Confederation and higher education institutions, which are responsible for the quality of their teaching, of their research and their service provision, and they must demonstrate that they have put in place the necessary mechanisms - a system of quality - to ensure and develop the quality of their missions in the long term.

Accreditation does not assess the quality of higher education activities, but rather the system it has put in place to ensure the quality of its activities (1). The public authorities finance higher education institutions by granting them considerable autonomy; they have to submit accounts in exchange, especially on the quality of their missions.

Formation des personnes comme "produit
The notion of quality in the world of higher education is multidimensional and its verification, or its evaluation, must be able to take into account the particularity of the sector and the specificities of each institution. The higher education institutions form the people

• et non des produits ou des machines - et ont pour mission, selon le Conseil de l'Europe (2): -- la préparation à un emploi durable ;
• la préparation à une vie de citoyens actifs dans des sociétés démocratiques ;
• le développement personnel ;
• le développement et la consolidation, par l'enseignement, l'apprentissage et la recherche, d'une base de connaissances approfon-dies et diversifiées.

The quality approach is therefore less prescriptive than that which existed in industry and incorporates into a global vision, in addition to the academic and governance aspects, elements such as the participation of the various stakeholders, durability and even equal opportunities. The national quality standards, like their European equivalent (3), are also very important in enabling each higher education institution to highlight its specific characteristics; the profile of the institution was taken into account in the composition of the group of evaluators.

Asymétrique, diversifié et décentralisé
The HES-SO itself, with its eight higher education institutions spread across the whole of western Switzerland and its seven cantons of education, is a multidimensional institution. The quality system of the HES-SO must conform to the image of the institution: asymmetrical, diversified and decentralised.

Asymmetrical, because the approach differs according to the missions; diversified and decentralised, because it is made up of a mosaic of local systems. Quality is seen in a general sense as the realisation of the objectives that have been set within the framework of a mission and strategic choices, taking into account the specifics, the context and the resources available.

The quality system is thus intended to be simple, pragmatic, sensitive and adapted to the reality of each of the components that make up the institution. It is based on the following principles: improvement, relevance, proportionality, coherence, continuity, mosaic, participation and transparency. It covers the institution's main missions: education, applied research and development (Ra&D), service provision and institutional policies (governance) that support the academic missions.

Evaluation formal
For the mission of education - the primary mission of the HES-SO -, the Rectorate has put in place, for all higher education institutions, an evaluation of all Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes on the basis of quality criteria covering the questions of profile/coherence of the programme, its architecture, cadre conditions and quality assurance.

The quality assurance process for the Ra&D mission - more firmly anchored in higher education - is harmonised across the HES-SO, but in a less formal way than the evaluation of the study programmes. In its current phase, it deals with key issues such as strategic objectives, resources, academic integration, and access to and evaluation of results. The approach focuses on the conditions and not on the evaluation of the research results, which are evaluated by the pairs, as is the custom. The first objective of the study is to obtain the opinion of the researchers and the domain leaders (equivalent to the faculty members in the university world) on the basis of their expertise, with a view to continuing improvement. The evaluation of service provision - which is strongly anchored in higher education - still needs to be developed. The quality procedures relating to institutional policies and services for academic missions are developed at the level of the cantonal/regional general management, the higher education institutions themselves or the Recto Council, each of which has put in place the system that suits it best (several use the ISO 9001:2015 standard).

Communiquer les microsystèmes qualité
Quantities of measures are also implemented in the various components of the HES-SO in connection with the main missions of the institution in order to respond to current activities and local realities. The diversity and the ri-chesse of these actions are documented by means of the quality reporting, a simple and pragmatic tool that allows us to keep track of the information on this mosaic of quality measures and to communicate between them these quality micro-systems, to ensure their visibility, and to promote the exchange of tried and tested practices.

This quality pilotage will complement the strategic, operational and financial pilotage of the HES-SO by allowing, through a complete, coherent and dynamic set of measures, to document, evaluate and maintain or improve the quality of the activities of the higher education institution and/or to support its adaptation to the changes in its environment.

Evolution constante
The quality system of the HES-SO, still under construction and in constant evolution, essentially covers the academic missions. The development of the quality system participates in the actions and measures taken day after day by the Rectorate and all the members of the institution to strengthen the position of the HES-SO in the world of higher education, which prepares our students for a durable and developing job, and develops, through education, training and research, a base of knowledge that is both solid and diversified.

The national quality requirements for higher education open the door to the more social dimensions of our institutions, as highlighted by the Council of Europe. The day is coming when quality systems will incorporate these elements to a greater extent: a good
projet et un beau défi en perspective.