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Assessing quality in Higher Education: some caveats

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  • Ferrante, Francesco

Abstract

The technology of cognitive and non-cognitive skills formation is characterized by the cumulative nature of learning processes and by the presence of significant complementarities and irreversibilities in the acquisition of such skills [Cunha and Heckman, 2007]. From this it follows that, in order to evaluate the quality of individual phases of skills formation, it is necessary to take account of the quality of the human capital entering the training process. It is evident that this aspect is more important, the more advanced the level of education. This paper evaluates the effects of the quality of Italian matriculants at 24 engineering faculties measured with the results of the CISIA standardized test on the regularity of university studies. The preliminary results confirm that failing to take account of the incoming quality of students may give rise to significant distortions in the evaluation of the academic productivity of universities.

Suggested Citation

  • Ferrante, Francesco, 2014. "Assessing quality in Higher Education: some caveats," MPRA Paper 62450, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:62450
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    1. Floro Ernesto Caroleo & Francesco Pastore, 2019. "The Italian lowgrowth conundrum: An assessment and some policy lessons," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 20(01), pages 33-39, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Higher education; quality; rankings; value added;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

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