Towards a Systemic Evaluation for Graduate Academic Programs in Mexico

Abstract

The level of development of quality life reached by a country is directly related to the quality level of the higher education offered in its institutions and universities. Particularly the quality of Doctorate programs where research and innovations are promoted, the results can be demonstrated by reviewing the research papers published in international journals, and the registered patents which eventually become goods or services that allow more welfare for the population among others.

In Mexico, the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT) is the responsible to guarantee the quality of graduate programs by the means of a periodical evaluation program, but it has been identified that such evaluation is very subjective, and therefore CONACyT along with other Government Institutions are in the process of acquiring abilities in order to perform a better evaluation system for Graduate and Postgraduate education in Mexico.

The literature review on systemic evaluation showed that most of the papers reviewed so far, focus mainly on the design of evaluation methodologies for industrial processes in which the quality is defined very well, according to the features of the inputs that go through a standard process producing a standard output. But none of the reviewed papers mentioned which are the main quality attributes in the case of academic evaluations. This shows the need to develop a more appropriate evaluation methodology for Postgraduate education in Mexico.

The evaluation methodology can be designed based on a systemic approach with an anthropocentric perspective since they are sociotechnical systems in which human interaction is a very important element. Also, the methodology can include the systemic attributes required to consider an academic program pertinent from an anthropocentric perspective.