Quality Monitoring and Quality Criteria For Doctoral Programs
Global Quality Criteria: Work Of The INDEN QCI
To address the issue of quality of doctoral education in nursing at the global level, the International Network for Doctoral Education in Nursing (INDEN) launched a committee on quality criteria, standards and indicators (QCI).
A 16member committee from eight countries has worked collaboratively on this project for more than two years, and the eighth draft was distributed to all INDEN members for their review and input in 2002. The eight countries represented by the committee members are Australia, Brazil, Canada , Korea, Poland, South Africa, the UK and the USA.
This document focused on one type of doctoral programme, namely on research-intensive programs (following the AACN definition) regardless of the title (eg PhD, DNS, D. Curatonis ) awarded upon graduation. This would include programs that require coursework as well as research-only programs with little or no coursework.
The latter approach is common in Europe, Australia and several other countries, where an apprenticeship relationship between the student and the major adviser constitutes the mainstay of the program. It should be noted that the aforementioned AACN Position Statement (2001) played a major role in formulating the quality criteria and indicators.
Limitations of space preclude the inclusion of its content here. INDEN expects to publish its document in the near future. This chapter has provided in-depth information about the three countries the authors represent.
Conclusions
The authors are pleased to note that we all agree about the importance of quality monitoring for doctoral education in nursing, particularly in the light of the rapid growth of its programs across countries. However, we observe that a shortage of qualified faculty poses a serious threat to the quality of doctoral education in most countries.
Educating and training doctoral students from a younger age is one solution we must pursue seriously. Our collaborative efforts revealed that there are more similarities than differences concerning issues related to components, monitoring methods and evaluation procedures of the quality of doctoral programs in nursing among the three countries we represent.
The same can be said about the approaches each country takes to address these issues. However, the processes for achieving the same goal of quality are different, as education systems are different in the three countries. To improve the overall quality of doctoral education in nursing, we see a need for developing global quality criteria, standards and indicators.
To this end, the work of the QCI committee of the INDEN holds promise. Last but not least, we must strengthen faculty research portfolios, improve resources and infrastructure for effective operations of doctoral programs, and increase funding for research and scholarly activities of faculty and students.
The criteria, standards and indicators described in this chapter are expected to be applicable in varying degrees to different types of doctoral degrees and different modes/approaches to doctoral education. However, concern might be raised about curriculum/programme evaluation criteria for programs where the primary mode of study is through research with a primary mentor, with non-formal coursework.
In response, we would note that student progress in research must be monitored with care over time to determine whether satisfactory progress is occurring. Standards have to be set, with specific indicators determined to measure the degree of progress in the particular areas of study the student is focusing on.
Similarly, concern has been raised about whether criteria/standards/indicators regarding students are applicable in instances where the student will be pursuing research through one-to-one supervision with a mentor. The answer is a resounding yes.
The quality of admitted students is an important determinant of the quality of graduates, and the type of roles they will assume upon graduation, and hence, of program quality.
Regardless of the type of program students are enrolled in, they need to be mentored to undertake gradually more rigorous and demanding scholarly tasks, prepare proposals and compete with peers, and demonstrate success in obtaining funding for research and for projects involving innovative educational and service initiatives .
We acknowledge that while not all the criteria may be applicable to all types of programs, the described criteria are sufficiently flexible to be adapted to specific circumstances, and used to guide educational activities.
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