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Internationalisation has gained prominence in debates on higher education and can be analysed from different perspectives, including cross-border higher education. Cross-border higher education entails relevant challenges, namely regarding its quality. This paper intends to discuss, based on a literature review, the link between cross-border higher education and quality assurance, namely the role quality assurance may have in contributing to a quality cross-border educational offer. 79 documents (indexed in Scopus or Web of Science) published between 1998 and 2019 were content analysed. The results show that both internal and external quality assurance are relevant topics when discussing cross-border higher education and a means to stimulate the overall quality of this educational offer. Moreover, to be effective, quality assurance must rely on cooperation and mutual trust between importing and exporting countries, including their quality assurance agencies.

Doctoral education has grown substantially, resulting in a larger and diverse pool of graduates for research. Simultaneously, gender balance in research has become a growing concern, particularly in Europe. Based on the Portuguese case, this paper discusses whether the increase in the pool of graduate talent, considered to be comprised of doctoral graduates, has resulted in a gender balance across different disciplines. The analysis of the evolution of doctoral theses completed by men and women from 1970 to 2016 suggests that, while gender balance has been achieved in terms of participation in doctoral education, horizontal segregation in disciplines persists. A more gender-balanced pool of graduate talent for research across disciplines seems to require more action from Portuguese policymakers and universities, particularly in terms of the implementation of gender equality measures. This is also true for countries where gender equality in doctoral education is a challenge.

Drawn from the SQELT Erasmus+ project, this article explores how learning analytics is implemented at a set of six European universities in the context of their performance data management models, including its multiple functions and ethical issues. It further identifies possible good practice and policy recommendations at decision-making level. Results show that learning analytics is present to a certain extent in all six institutions, although mostly based on traditional data and still lacking predictive capacity concerning students' performance. Learning analytics is viewed as useful in providing more accurate personal data on students' learning, contributing to the establishment of more sophisticated quality management systems. The European General Data Protection Regulation and national privacy laws sufficiently cover the majority of data ethics risks posed by learning analytics. Overall, learning analytics entails both opportunities and threats. The possibilities of a learning analytics approach deserve further attention within universities and quality assurance agencies.

BackgroundAtopic dermatitis is a common childhood disease, potentially influenced by prenatal nutritional exposures such as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs).ObjectiveIn a racially diverse cohort, we hypothesized that childhood atopic dermatitis would be associated with higher prenatal omega-6 (n-6) and lower omega-3 (n-3) PUFAs.MethodsWe included mother-child dyads, births 2006 to 2011, enrolled in the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center Conditions Affecting Neurocognitive Development in Early Childhood cohort. Primary exposures included second trimester plasma n-3 and n-6 PUFA status and the ratio of the two (n-6:n-3). We assessed child current atopic dermatitis symptoms in the previous 12 months at age approximately 4 to 6 years. We investigated the association between PUFA exposures and atopic dermatitis using multivariable logistic regression, adjusting for potential confounders. We assessed for effect modification by maternal prenatal smoking, atopic disease history, and child sex.ResultsAmong 1131 women, 67% were African American and 42% had an atopic disease history; 17% of children had atopic dermatitis. Higher prenatal n-6 PUFAs were associated with increased relative odds of child atopic dermatitis (adjusted odds ratio: 1.25; confidence interval: 1.01-1.54 per interquartile range difference), and interaction models demonstrated that this association was seen in dyads in which the women had a history of atopic disease. Neither prenatal n-3 PUFAs nor n-6:n-3 were associated with child atopic dermatitis.ConclusionIn this racially diverse cohort, higher second trimester n-6 PUFAs were associated with atopic dermatitis in children of women with atopy. PUFAs may represent a modifiable risk factor for atopic dermatitis, particularly in individuals with a familial predisposition.

AbstractThis article discusses the multiple challenges cross-border higher education (CBHE) in Europe faces nowadays, namely regarding the assurance of its quality. The views of a set of European quality assurance agencies are analysed to understand their role in assuring the quality of this type of educational provision. Empirically, the article is based on the material collected through interviews conducted with the responsible for quality assurance agencies from 10 European countries: Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. The results reveal that almost all quality assurance agencies have at least partial experience with CBHE provision, mainly related to the evaluation of joint-degree programmes offered by European higher education institutions. The cooperation between countries and agencies emerges as one of the main challenges to the development of a common tool to enhance CBHE, which could facilitate the quality assurance process for all stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses teaching and non-teaching staff perceptions on the implementation of internal quality assurance (QA) practices at their higher education institutions. The aim is to understand how far different perspectives on quality -- as culture, as compliance or as consistency -- are reflected in the views of these two groups on such practices. Data from a survey sent to all Portuguese institutions show that, to some extent, the perspectives of quality as culture and quality as compliance seem to permeate both groups' views. This is evident in regard to the factors identified as supporting the development of internal QA, the main features underlying the implementation of such practices and their main effects. As the study allows for a better understanding on how these practices are perceived by teaching and non-teaching staff, it can contribute to promoting the critical reflection of institutions about QA and the way it can be both more effective and aligned with academia's needs and expectations, contributing to influencing institutional practices.

Academics' support for quality assurance (QA) depends on several factors, including their sense of ownership, which seems to be influenced by academics' participation in QA's implementation. This paper aims to understand whether this participation is indeed contributing to academics' ownership of QA. Findings from a survey of Portuguese academics' on their participation in study programmes accreditation suggests that this may not be the case. Academics present a partial withdrawal towards effective participation in study programmes' accreditation, especially regarding external assessment. Furthermore, they do not seem willing to enhance this participation nor are they very critical about it. Since academics' sense of ownership is essential for the successful implementation of QA, these results may represent a challenge for both institutions and QA agencies.

Purpose: This paper aims to look at the characteristics of internal quality assurance (IQA) systems of higher education institutions to understand whether these systems tend to reproduce a given model, externally defined and suggested to institutions, or rather to be shaped by institutions' features and interests. Design/methodology/approach: The study is supported in the analysis of the content of self-assessment reports of 12 internal QA systems certified, in Portugal, between 2012 and 2015. An analysis grid was used based on three categories: IQA systems' historical framework, structural/managerial component and monitoring, assessment and continuous improvement. Findings: Institutions tended to follow a "one size fits all" approach, meaning that external (European and national) quality assurance (QA) references were used in an identical way, giving origin to rather similar IQA systems. Institutional characteristics do not seem to have played a relevant role, eventually due to institutions' will to obtain their systems' certification and, thus, achieve a light-touch external QA. Research limitations/implications: The study was based on the analysis of only certified IQA systems and relies on document analysis. It would be interesting to also include non-certified systems, in a comparative perspective, complemented with data deriving from interviews and/or questionnaires with some of the actors involved in the certification process. Practical implications: The study provides an understanding of how IQA systems are being implemented in Portugal. Thus, it can be of interest to other institutions as well as to QA agencies. Originality/value: The study addresses a topic still relatively absent from research on QA in higher education, being of interest for researchers in the field.

Quality assurance is currently an established activity in Europe, driven either by national quality assurance agencies or by institutions themselves. However, whether quality assurance is perceived as actually being capable of promoting quality is still a question open to discussion. Based on three different views on quality derived from the literature--quality as culture, as compliance and as consistency--the current article sheds light on this issue by identifying the main obstacles to quality as perceived by Portuguese academics. The analysis reveals that academics tend to see those obstacles as essentially related to the view of quality as culture and especially with its structural component, including the design and functioning of institutional governance and management. Although this may indeed correspond to the Portuguese higher education institutions' reality, one must not forget that academics tend to have a poor knowledge about the structural frames that are embedded in governance and management. By highlighting obstacles related to different views on quality, this study may serve as a base to the development of more effective quality assurance mechanisms.

This research seeks to explore academics' perceptions of the importance and degree of implementation of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) for internal quality assurance. It uses empirical evidence from Portugal, gathered via a questionnaire given to all university academics. Results show academics' perceptions of the importance and implementation of the ESG in their institutions to be quite positive. Nevertheless, academics tend to find the standards more important than effectively implemented. Furthermore, significant differences in perceptions emerge between groups of academics. This study intends to contribute to a better understanding of the implementation of quality management practices in universities, and the influence of the ESG in this process.

The emergence and development of quality assurance schemes in European countries over the last 15-20 years has inspired many national case studies of the systems and procedures adopted. The methods, contexts, and procedures associated with this policy change are diverse. But although individual countries have set about changing policy in different ways there appear to be some common developmental patterns within the Europe of the Bologna Process. How can these developments be conceptualised? In a first step this paper advances a typology based on the quality assurance literature. In a second step, the paper applies the typology to quality assurance developments in three countries. The third part of the paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the modelling approach in the light of the empirical evidence and a political science analysis of policy change. The paper concludes with a discussion on future directions for the comparative study of policy change within the European Higher Education Area on the basis of this conceptualisation of developments in quality assurance policy.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss student satisfaction with Portuguese higher education institutions, and to analyse how this varies for different types of students. A survey instrument was used to collect data on students' perceptions and expectations regarding different aspects of service provision. Based on the gap model of satisfaction, satisfaction indices were calculated for all items considered and were checked for their statistical significance. Although, generically speaking, students' perceptions and expectations are high, the satisfaction indices are all negative and statistically different from zero. Furthermore, significant differences of satisfaction regarding some aspects of service provision were found between different groups of students. This study may contribute to institutions improving the quality of services they provide. Furthermore, this study will contribute to improving the quality of higher education institutions through correcting mistakes and designing better processes, provided that the information collected through student satisfaction surveys has been treated adequately.

The accountability versus improvement debate is an old one. Although being traditionally considered dichotomous purposes of higher education quality assessment, some authors defend the need of balancing both in quality assessment systems. This article goes a step further and contends that not only they should be balanced but also that other purposes can be devised for assessing quality in higher education. Five different purposes are proposed: communication, motivation, control, improvement and innovation, derived both from the higher education and the organisational performance literatures. Then the answers given to a set of questions related to these five intended purposes are analysed. The answers were collected through a questionnaire designed to investigate Portuguese academics' perceptions on higher education quality assessment. Overall the analysis performed reveals a certain degree of support for all the purposes, albeit higher in the case of the improvement and communication purposes and lower for control and motivation. Since an adequate implementation of quality assessment systems needs the support of academics, this article can inform the design of systems integrating academics' views on the subject. (Contains 1 table.)

This paper reflects on quality assessment and performance evaluation in higher education, namely by analysing the insufficient link between those two aspects. We start by reviewing the current state of the art regarding different processes and mechanisms of quality assessment and performance evaluation and discuss some of the major issues regarding the implementation of some of them. In particular, we analyse the current limitations regarding data collected, available and publicised on the performance of HEIs and the problems those limitations bring to a fair evaluation of higher education. Through this analysis we intend to contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms of evaluation in higher education and the way these may lead to the promotion of better quality assessment practices and institutional management. (Contains 1 footnote.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss how funding systems influence higher education institutions and their strategies and core tasks. Design/methodology/approach: Taking the results of a comparative study between Denmark, Norway and Portugal as a point of departure, the paper identifies and analyses the main features of these state funding systems, their strengths and weaknesses, and their impact on academia. Findings: The system-level analysis offers an illustration of a trend across Europe. The paper shows that mixed funding models have been implemented in all three countries. Originality/value: Funding systems and their impacts do not come in neat packages. The systems demonstrate a mixed pattern of strengths and weaknesses. The impacts of the funding systems converge, although different mechanisms are employed. There are no clear cut differences in the perceived strengths, weaknesses and impacts of the two main types of funding systems--input-based funding and output-based funding--presented and discussed in the paper. (Contains 1 figure and 3 notes.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to measure and compare the performance of Portuguese secondary schools. Design/methodology/approach: Some data on the schools were collected via an electronic questionnaire sent to 103 secondary schools of the centre region of Portugal; other needed data were available through the Centre Regional Education Authority. Of the 33 schools that participated in the study, there was complete data for 29. A non-parametric technique, data envelopment analysis (DEA), was used to assess the sample of schools and the results obtained were compared with some preliminary results of a national evaluation programme of schools. Findings: From the findings, the tentative conclusion is that most schools are following national education policy priorities relating to decreasing dropout rates and increasing completion rates. School performance does not seem to relate to geographic location, size of the school, typology of the school or rotation of its executive committee. The paper concludes by discussing the need for metric benchmarking exercises of the type proposed, to inform schools, evaluators and policy decision makers. Finally, the complementarities between metric and practice benchmarking exercises are argued for. Research limitations/implications: The paper reports on an exploratory study, and thus it contains limitations which need to be overcome by further work. The sample used is small and self-selected; the DEA models used are quite simple; also, it would be desirable to compare the results of the DEA, with parametric techniques that have been used to evaluate school performance. Originality/value: The paper makes a contribution to the understanding of schools' performance management, in order to inform schools, evaluators and policy decision makers. (Contains 1 figure and 11 tables.)

In order to evaluate the additional effects of antimicrobials associated with conventional therapy, this study compared the clinical changes in subjects treated with scaling and root planing (SRP) alone or in combination with local or systemically administered tetracycline over time. Thirty patients with chronic periodontitis were randomly assigned to 3 groups: SRP + 500 mg of systemic tetracycline twice/day for 14 days (SRP + Tetra); SRP alone and SRP + tetracycline fibers at 4 selected sites for 10 days (SRP + Fiber). Clinical assessments were made at 6 sites/tooth at baseline, 3 and 6 months post-therapy. Two types of analyses were performed, one including all sites and other only the 4 test sites in each subject. Significant changes within and between groups were sought using Friedman, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests. All therapies resulted in clinical improvement over time, which was more marked in the groups treated with tetracycline. The SRP + Tetra group had a significant lower % of sites with plaque, bleeding on probing (BOP) and deep probing pocket depth (PPD) at 3 months; higher % of sites with shallow PPD and lower % of sites with PPD = 4 - 6mm at 3 and 6 months compared to SRP alone (p < 0.05). Subjects in the SRP + Fiber group had a significant lower % of sites with BOP at 3 months and lower mean of attachment level at 6 months than the controls (p < 0.05). The adjunctive use of systemic or local tetracycline may improve the efficacy of the mechanical non-surgical therapy of chronic periodontitis.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the microbiological changes in the subgingival biofilm resulting from systemic or local tetracycline therapy associated with scaling and root planing (SRP) in chronic periodontitis. Thirty patients with chronic periodontitis were randomly assigned to 3 groups: SRP + 500 mg of systemic tetracycline twice/day for 14 days; SRP alone and SRP + tetracycline fibers at 4 selected sites for 10 days. Subgingival plaque samples were obtained from 4 selected sites with probing pocket depths of 6 - 10 mm in each subject at baseline, 1 week, 3 and 6 months post-therapy. The presence and levels of 31 subgingival species distributed into microbial complexes were determined using the checkerboard technique. Significant microbiological changes within and among groups were sought using the Friedman and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Most of the microbial complexes decreased in prevalence and levels at 1 week and 3 months, but tended to return to baseline levels at 6 months after treatment. Beneficial species were reduced over time in subjects who received SRP only, however were increased or maintained in the patients treated with local and systemic tetracycline. Moreover, these groups showed a significant reduction (p < 0.01) in the prevalence of the “red complex” species as compared to the control. Likewise, A. actinomycetemcomitans was more decresed in both tetracycline groups. In chronic periodontitis, local and systemic tetracycline therapy significantly reduced the prevalence of some periodontal pathogens and favored the increase of beneficial species for at least 6 months after treatment.

For a period of 2 years, five follow-up measures of prevalence and incidence rates were estimated in a prospective study of S. mansoni infection in a group of schoolchildren who were living in a rural area of the Municipality of Itariri (São Paulo, Brazil), where schistosomiasis is transmitted by Biomphalaria tenagophila. Infection was determined by the examination of three Kato-Katz stool slides, and the parasitological findings were analyzed in comparison to serological data. In the five surveys, carried out at 6-month intervals (March-April and September-October), the prevalences were, respectively, 8.6, 6.8, 9.9, 5.8 and 17.2% by the Kato-Katz, and 56.5, 52.6, 60.8, 53.5 and 70.1% by the immunofluorescence test (IFT). Geometric mean egg counts were low: 57.8, 33.0, 35.6, 47.3 and 40.9 eggs per gram of feces, respectively. Of the total of 299 schoolchildren, who submitted five blood samples at 6-month intervals, one for each survey, 40% were IFT-positive throughout the study, and 22% were IFT-negative in all five surveys. Seroconversion from IFT negative to positive, indicating newly acquired S. mansoni infection, was observed more frequently in surveys carried out during March-April (after Summer holidays), than during September-October. Seasonal trends were not statistically significant for detection of S. mansoni eggs in stool. The results indicate that the use of IgM-IFT is superior to parasitological methods for detection of incidence of S. mansoni infection in areas with low worm burden.