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This paper examines the quality evaluations of the Greek Universities highlighting those which offer a full-fledged study program of primary education. There are eight principles-criteria according to which each university is evaluated. For each principle, scores may range from 1 (noncompliance with the principle) to 4 (fully compliance). I present and compare results of the Greek university evaluations completed by the Hellenic Quality Assurance and Accreditation Agency (HQA). Surprisingly, no university has been graded as non-compliant in any of the eight principles-criteria. These evaluations are performed by an alleged "external" and "independent" committee. For all practical purposes, they are, nevertheless, based on subjective and biased opinions of academics affiliated with international universities with links to Greece and its universities. Independent and evidence-based evaluations paint a different picture. Universities which get perfect scores in the quality evaluation processes perform badly in the pertinent international ranking systems. As a case study, their primary education departments have lower research performance with high variability between faculty members and departments. Given that one criterion of evaluating quality is research, then not all Greek universities can be evaluated as highly performing research institutions, either in absolute or relevant terms. This criterion of quality is not satisfied by the primary education departments of Greek universities. According to this evidence, using the HQA as an agency to assess and accredit quality is useless. It should be abolished. A new system should be based on objective criteria such as independent teaching evaluations and research performance. These do not require any committee to evaluate performance and can be constructed on evidence-based policy. The latter relies solely on rigorously established objective facts.

Learning analytics have proved promising capabilities and opportunities to many aspects of academic research and higher education studies. Data-driven insights can significantly contribute to provide solutions for curbing costs and improving education quality. This paper adopts a two-phase machine learning approach, which utilizes both unsupervised and supervised learning techniques for predicting outcomes of students following Higher Education programs of studies. The approach has been applied in a case-study which has been performed in the context of an undergraduate Computer Science curriculum offered by the University of Thessaly in Greece. Students involved in the case study were initially grouped based on the similarity of specific education-related factors and metrics. Using the K-Means algorithm, our clustering experiments revealed the presence of three coherent clusters of students. Subsequently, the discovered clusters were utilized to train prediction models for addressing each particular cluster of students individually. In this regard, two machine learning models were trained for every cluster of students in order to predict the time to degree completion and student enrollment in the offered educational programs. The developed models are claimed to produce predictions with relatively high accuracy. Finally, the paper discusses the potential usefulness of the clustering-aided approach for learning analytics in Higher Education.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role and the scope of knowledge management (KM) in doctoral education, in the emerging knowledge economy (KE) context, and the recommendation of a framework for KM in doctoral education. Design/Methodology/Approach: An extended literature analysis was contacted to elaborate the role and the scope of KM in universities and research institutions in the context of global KE, and the role of knowledge workers, including doctoral students, as well as, the current directions for doctoral education. Literature analysis is followed by synthesis of the proposed framework for KM in doctoral education toward KE. Findings: A framework for KM in doctoral education is proposed, which could be used to enhance quality of doctoral studies and could lead to research optimization and innovation growth. Finally, proposals are recommended for enhancing KM in doctoral education and utilize doctoral students as knowledge workers and change factors toward the notion of global KE. Originality/ Value: The paper is an effort to start filling the literature gap in the emerging but under-researched subject of KM regarding doctoral education in the context of KE, with the purpose to enhance quality of doctoral studies and capture the socio-economic development advantages that come from training such a highly skilled workforce.

This paper compares and contrasts higher education in Canada and Greece. An overview of the systems in place is followed by an analysis centred on the triad of funding, access and quality. Similarities and differences are highlighted, and the current challenges and issues faced by both nations will be examined, especially in terms of world competitiveness and the pressures of globalization. I conclude that Canada currently has postsecondary systems in place that make it more competitive in world markets than Greece has at the moment.

During the last decade, significant funding has become available to Greek public universities to support the convergence to the common European space of higher education. In a number of departments, this funding was wisely invested in the development of a quality culture, covering not only the educational process, but also the services offered by the department's administration and technical support staff. This paper presents the design and implementation of a quality-oriented studies' reform plan in the Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Thessaly in the period 2002-2008. Based on the successful experience from its application, a significant part of the personnel and students have become acquainted with basic quality assurance procedures and performance evaluation. Experience and lessons learnt from this effort are reported and discussed in this paper. (Contains 3 figures.)

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to identify the quality determinants for education services provided by higher education institutions (HEIs) in Greece and to measure their relative importance from the students' points of view. Design/methodology/approach: A multi-criteria decision-making methodology was used for assessing the relative importance of quality determinants that affect student satisfaction. More specifically, the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) was used in order to measure the relative weight of each quality factor. Findings: The relative weights of the factors that contribute to the quality of educational services as it is perceived by students was measured. Research limitations/implications: The research is based on the questionnaire of the Hellenic Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. This implies that the measured weights are related mainly to questions posed in this questionnaire. However, the applied method (AHP) can be used to assess different quality determinants. Practical implications: The outcome of this study can be used in order to quantify internal quality assessment of HEIs. More specifically, the outcome can be directly used by HEIs for assessing quality as perceived by students. Originality/value: The paper attempts to develop insights into comparative evaluations of quality determinants as they are perceived by students. (Contains 8 figures and 4 tables.)

The paper investigates the views of Greek university graduates on the link between higher education and productivity in order to determine the extent to which productivity can be considered to be an indication of quality in higher education. It also investigates the perceived effect of the type and content of higher education on productivity; factors limiting the positive impact of higher education on productivity; and ways of reducing the influence of these factors. In-depth interviews were conducted with 40 employed university graduates in Greece. Respondents generally considered higher education to have a productivity-enhancing effect, in disagreement with the screening challenge to the human capital interpretation of the link between education and productivity. The findings also suggest that respondents embraced specific conceptualisations of quality in higher education.

A discussion of quality in preservice and inservice teacher education in Greece focuses on the political and social issues that have given it form, differences between preservice training for primary and secondary teachers, changes in inservice education, quality control and assessment, and related research on quality. (SM)

The case of Greece as the most recent neoliberal experiment can provide valuable insights not only about a generalized attack on the welfare state and the public good, but also about the radical changes in public education that are altering its public mission, vision, and goals. In this paper first we trace the educational landscape in Greece as it emerges both from the reform in primary and secondary education and from the new law 4009 on higher education. The ongoing government discourse on education is shaped and constructed along the lines of a market- driven society and unapologetically espouses the neoliberal dogma that aims to convert education into training, universities into corporations, knowledge into a service or commodity, and students into clients. We further examine the official public discourse as illustrated in government documentation in an attempt to map out the marked shift from the university as a public good to the university as corporate entity, and highlight the particular ways in which this is done. The new educational legislation sets the stage for an education where the individual will thrive through relentless competition, where collectivity is abolished, where only "useful" knowledge counts and where "quality" and "excellence" serve as the excuse for a corporate standardization of the university and the academic life and thought.

In this article, 93 Greek university departments were evaluated according to their academics' h-index. A representative sample from the fields of social sciences and humanities, sciences, engineering, pharmacy and economics was adopted. In the reported study, 3354 (approximately 1 out of 3) academics serving in Greek universities were evaluated. The number of papers, citations and h-index have been collected for each academic, department, school and university using the Google Scholar scientific database and the citations analysis software program Publish or Perish. Analysis revealed that departments of the same academic discipline but located in different universities are characterised by strong differences on the scientific outcome. In addition, in the majority of the evaluated departments, a significant difference in h-index was observed between academics who report scientific activity on the departments' website and those who do not. The viability of the adopted method for measuring and ranking the scientific performance of higher education departments proved to be quite high. (Contains 19 tables.)

This paper presents the usability evaluation of a digital systems laboratory class offered to distance-learning students. It details the way in which students can participate remotely in such a laboratory, the methodology employed in the usability assessment of the laboratory infrastructure (hardware and software), and also outlines the main findings and lessons learned. It has been shown that the setting up of such a laboratory requires careful design, pilot runs, and formal evaluation prior to scaling up for a large number of students in order to both foresee usability flaws in the infrastructure and ensure educational quality. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

An academic legislative reform of the public university sector was recently initiated in Greece (since 2005). It was designed to respond to the requirements of convergence to a common frame of the European Space of Higher Education. This reform found significant resistance from university personnel and students, resulting in a very slow degree of implementation. A careful examination of possible causes for the slow pace of reform usually points to the reluctance of a significant part of the academic and administrative personnel (tenured public service employees), to follow quality assurance procedures and undergo performance evaluation. Engineering schools, on the other hand, are more apt to adopt such principles, since they are taught in engineering curricula and widely applied in industry and services sectors. In this paper, the authors comparatively describe their experience in applying basic quality principles and practices to the university laboratory environment, motivated by cooperation with industry. The comparative discussion adds insight to the reasons for the resistance of the public higher education sector to quality assurance procedures and indicates specific directions to enhance the dissemination of quality culture in engineering faculties. After two decades of experience with the application and introduction of quality structures in the university and industry, the authors believe that engineering laboratories are a valuable tool in initiating and establishing a quality culture in the Greek higher education system. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

The globalization of education, with its multiple associations with the growth of the knowledge society, the increasing penetration of market forces in higher education and the treatment of education as an exportable good, supplied in different forms and by various providers, exerts the need for systematic quality assurance in higher education. In Europe, the Bologna Process has urged member-states to respond quickly to the impact of globalization by facilitating tertiary assessment mechanisms to make European education attractive to foreign "consumers" and at the same time to prevent academic migration to the USA. At present, Greece is among those member-states lacking some type of formal tertiary evaluation. The paper examines socio-political and economic conditions in which hostility towards quality assurance has developed. It discusses the prospects of Greece's converging towards the quality goals of the European Higher Education Area. This case goes beyond the limits of a strictly technical debate about the implementation of evaluation procedures or what its criteria ought to be, with the purpose of presenting the broader socio-political and economic background that influences the enactment and operation of quality assurance in Greece.

This paper finds that the financial crisis has tremendously impacted innovation in most European countries with Greece and Lithuania being the most affected while Finland and Austria have the least negative effect on their innovation activities. Greece and Lithuania's national innovation systems share many common characteristics which are in sharp contrast to those shared by Finland and Austria, including most notably culture, quality of the higher education system, science and technological capability, and structure of the economy. Those identified distinctions along the main dimensions of the national innovation systems between the most and least affected countries could to a large extent explain why the effect of the financial crisis is heterogeneous across European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate whether educational leadership in Greece implements the values of total quality management and contributes to the improvement of the educational process, and to offer proposals for a framework of total quality management that would contribute to an improvement in the overall quality of the education process. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on theoretical analysis and on the current legislative framework. Three different aspects of the Greek education system are critically reviewed and discussed. Findings – This study recognises that, due mainly to the lack of a long-term educational strategy, the absence of an educational leadership development programme and limited financial support, the Greek educational system needs to review its structure and procedures - even those that are "taken for granted". Research limitations/implications – Given the differences between education and industry, and the fact that only three different aspects of the Greek education system are investigated here, more research and analysis would be required in this field. Practical implications – The paper is useful to educational planners and policy makers. From the perspective of total quality management, there may be a substantial impact on the improvement mechanisms and outputs in education, contributing to a country's social and economic well-being. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the better understanding of the value of total quality management in education, and offers recommendations that may be more widely adopted, and may contribute to an enhancement of overall educational quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In compliance with national legislation, Greek tertiary education institutions assess educational quality often using a standardized anonymous questionnaire completed by students. This questionnaire aims to independently evaluate various course components, including content organization, instructor quality, facilities, infrastructure, and grading methods. Despite widespread use across universities, the questionnaire's validity remains unexamined. This study addresses this gap by analyzing 48,000+ questionnaire responses from the University of the Peloponnese (2014–2022), encompassing 68 undergraduate and graduate programs. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to assess the quality of the questionnaire, while exploratory factor analyses were used to assess the dimensions of the tool based on the data. Both analyses reveal shortcomings: confirmatory analysis detects strong correlations between supposedly different factors, and exploratory analysis identifies dimensions inconsistent with the expected structure. These findings question the questionnaire's quality and the validity of drawn conclusions, while additionally identifying opportunities for reducing the number of questions, which can contribute to increased questionnaire submission rates. Given its common use across Greek universities and its influence on shaping courses, urgent redesigning of the questionnaire for tertiary education evaluation is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, 93 Greek university departments were evaluated according to their academics’ h-index. A representative sample from the fields of social sciences and humanities, sciences, engineering, pharmacy and economics was adopted. In the reported study, 3354 (approximately 1 out of 3) academics serving in Greek universities were evaluated. The number of papers, citations and h-index have been collected for each academic, department, school and university using the Google Scholar scientific database and the citations analysis software program Publish or Perish. Analysis revealed that departments of the same academic discipline but located in different universities are characterised by strong differences on the scientific outcome. In addition, in the majority of the evaluated departments, a significant difference in h-index was observed between academics who report scientific activity on the departments’ website and those who do not. The viability of the adopted method for measuring and ranking the scientific performance of higher education departments proved to be quite high. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to identify the quality determinants for education services provided by higher education institutions (HEIs) in Greece and to measure their relative importance from the students' points of view. Design/mthodology/approach – A multi-criteria decision-making methodology was used for assessing the relative importance of quality determinants that affect student satisfaction. More specifically, the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) was used in order to measure the relative weight of each quality factor. Findings – The relative weights of the factors that contribute to the quality of educational services as it is perceived by students was measured. Research limitations/implications – The research is based on the questionnaire of the Hellenic Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. This implies that the measured weights are related mainly to questions posed in this questionnaire. However, the applied method (AHP) can be used to assess different quality determinants. Practical implications – The outcome of this study can be used in order to quantify internal quality assessment of HEIs. More specifically, the outcome can be directly used by HEIs for assessing quality as perceived by students. Originality/value – The paper attempts to develop insights into comparative evaluations of quality determinants as they are perceived by students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how dominant discourses disseminated through quality assurance processes in Greek Higher Education (re)define academic work and language use in a globalised HE field. Drawing on Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse, we approach government-led external evaluations of university departments as official policy texts that encode the evaluative criteria of quality institutions and valorise specific forms of knowledge and conduct. Our analysis of empirical material derived from selected HE departments illustrates that performance measurement systems interlink English as a default language with mobility and research activity in a unified discourse of quality constructing a selective understanding of how Higher Education Institutions and academics are expected to attain international visibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greece, an EU-member state since 1981, lagged behind other European countries in the development of a national quality assurance system. This article charts the route to the establishment of a quality assurance system in Greece. While national evaluation and accreditation systems were established in most European countries during the mid-1980s and 1990s, any attempt of assessing the quality of education and research or other services provided by Greek higher education institutions and of rendering social accountability for the public resources that they received, was considered a threat to their autonomy. Moreover, while Greece was a signatory state of the Bologna Declaration, the Bologna Process has been 'demonised' and the commitments concerning quality assurance remained a dead letter. However, it was the Bologna Process that led to the national quality assurance system being established by law in 2005, close to the Bergen Ministerial Conference. The stocktaking exercise played a key role in this development not only in the case of Greece but also for some other South East European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]