Impact of the pandemic on institutional self-assessment processes. Paraguayan experience

Abstract

This article collects the results of an investigation carried out with the aim of analyzing the impact of the pandemic on the process of institutional self-assessment. This process is one of the stages of the institutional evaluation promoted by the National Agency for Evaluation and Accreditation of Higher Education (ANEAES) of Paraguay as a mechanism to ensure the quality of higher education institutions in the country. The research is a mixed approach, with a concurrent triangulation design, descriptive level and cross section. For the collection of information, the technique of interview and survey was used. The population was made up of the managers and members of the academic community of the 16 institutions, universities and higher institutes that participated in the evaluation. The sample was made through the intentional sampling technique. For the interviews, institutional directors were selected and, for the application of a Likert-type questionnaire, all the members of the Institutional Self-Assessment Committees were selected, which were formed to carry out this process. The results show the impact of the pandemic on the processes of management, planning, participation in self assessment, as well as on the emotional state of the different institutional actors.