On Legal Bases and Process of Accreditation of Teaching of Law in Estonia (University of Tartu Faculty of Law Case)

AuthorKalle Merusk, Raul Narits, Peep Pruks
Pages142-162

Kalle Merusk, Raul Narits, Peep Pruks

On Legal Bases and Process of Accreditation of Teaching of Law in Estonia (University of Tartu Faculty of Law Case)

When the legislators of newly independent Estonia began to draft legislation on educational life, one of the goals was to guarantee the quality of education via legal regulation. In 1995, the Universities Act was adopted which prescribed the main method for ensuring the quality of higher education - accreditation1. Under the Act, accreditation is understood as an activity during which evaluation is made and a resolution is adopted regarding the compliance of a university and its curricula with requirements prescribed by the Act and standards. The Standard of Higher Education is a set of requirements prescribed by the Government of Estonia determining the goals of an academic course for the purpose of attaining professional, vocational and official competence, list of vocations and specialities covered by the standard, general requirements applicable to curricula and the total scope of studies. Under § 10 of the Universities Act, a university and its curricula are accredited by the independent Council for Evaluation of Higher Education2, formed by the Government of the Republic which operates within the area of government of the Ministry of Education. The Council is composed of representatives from research and development agencies, state foundations and professional associations. The Council forms evaluation committees, and on their recommendations makes proposals regarding universities and their activities. Representatives of research and development agencies and scientists from two foreign countries are appointed to the evaluation committees. The Council also accredits universities and their curricula at least once in seven years. Although the Universities Act primarily regulates the activities of universities in public law, private higher educational establishments and their curricula are accredited, under the Private Schools Act, on the same bases as the universities in public law as prescribed by the Universities Act3.

The Universities Act provides for two types of accreditation: institutional accreditation, which encompasses a higher education establishment or its structural unit, and the accreditation of a curriculum.

Upon the accreditation of a university, the structure and organisation of the university or its structural unit and the compliance of the academic environment with goals as well as the expediency and efficiency of the usage of resources are evaluated. The contents of studies are not the direct objective of institutional accreditation, thus the accreditation of a university or its structural unit does not necessarily mean that the contents of their curricula meet the prescribed level. At the same time, institutional accreditation is a condition precedent in ensuring high-quality training in the specialities that are taught. Under § 12 of the Universities Act, the goal of the accreditation of a curriculum is to identify the quality of the contents of the curriculum. In accreditation of a curriculum, its compliance with the Standard of Higher Education, including the level of theoretical and practical tuition, scientific and pedagogical qualification of teaching staff and scientists, the level of knowledge of students and the effectiveness of studies are evaluated. The accreditation of a curriculum may occur separately for different educational degrees (studies for diploma, Bachelor's, Master's or Doctor's degree) or they can be accredited all together. The accreditation of curricula carries a juridical meaning primarily because only those documents proving acquisition of a higher education obtained from studies under an accredited curriculum are recognised by state. Accreditation comprises two stages. Stage 1 consists in the self-analysis of a higher educational establishment in the course of which materials for the committee of experts are prepared whilst Stage 2 involves evaluation by external experts. In its course, experts examine the report of self-analysis, visit the university being accredited and evaluate the situation on the spot guided by the goal of accreditation.

Depending on the results of accreditation, the Council for Evaluation of Higher Education may make one of the following decisions:

"accredited", meaning that the higher educational establishment or curriculum meets the requirements prescribed by the Universities Act and Standard of Higher Education and that the state recognises the documents proving acquisition of higher education under the accredited curriculum;"conditionally accredited", meaning that the higher educational establishment or the contents or implementation of its curriculum under accreditation contain substantial shortcomings that need to be remedied.

Such an accreditation decision "accredits" the establishment provisionally for two years as from the date of the decision. After the elapse of the two-year period, the committee of experts decides if the shortcomings have been remedied and makes their proposal to the Council for Evaluation of Higher Education for adoption of a new decision. It is important to emphasise that once an establishment has been conditionally accredited, it cannot receive conditional accreditation for the second time - it can just become "accredited" or "nonaccredited";

"nonaccredited", meaning that very substantial shortcomings were discovered in the higher educational establishment, its curriculum or its implementation, which have a major impact on the quality of knowledge and skills of the graduates from this establishment. Upon a negative accreditation decision made by the Council for Evaluation of Higher Education, the Minister of Education may revoke the training licence as far as the nonaccredited curriculum is concerned and make a proposal to the Government of Estonia regarding the further activities of the university. If proposed by the Council for Evaluation of Higher Education, the Government may suspend the decision on the revocation of the training license for up to two years and annul the decision altogether if during those two years a positive accreditation decision is made.

If a curriculum receives a negative accreditation decision the first time, the university may request a second accreditation one year after the decision. If a new accreditation is not requested within three years of the negative accreditation decision, the Minister of Education may, by his resolution, stop admission of students into a study domain or close it. The latter measures are taken if the university receives a negative accreditation decision for the second time in a row. Should this be the case, the students may continue their studies in another study domain of the same university or in the same domain but in another university. If more than one-third of the curricula of a university are nonaccredited, the training license shall be revoked and the activities of the university shall be terminated.

It is important to mention that under the Universities Act (§ 13(2)), the state does not recognise the documents proving acquisition of higher education if issued after the date when the training license of the issuer in respect of the related curriculum was revoked by the Minister of Education due to the negative accreditation decision on that curriculum.

Estonia started to accredit the curricula of law in the spring semester of 1996. The Faculty of Law of the University of Tartu prepared a report on self-analysis and presented it on deadline (31 May 1996)4. As far as we know, the reports on self-analysis were filed by two private higher educational establishments: The International University of Social Sciences LEX and Estonian-American Business College5. Unfortunately, no further steps followed the presentation of self-analysis reports for more than eighteen months.

Accreditation activities were continued in October and November 1997. Unfortunately, the preparations for the accreditation of law curricula did not occur quite without excesses. Problems were encountered with staffing the evaluation committee with competent people as well as with timely notification of higher educational establishments about the visit of the evaluating committee and in the overall preparation and conduction of the process6. Due to substantial omissions in the preparation of accreditation, higher educational...

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