An instrument to evaluate the impact of the higher education accreditation system: Validation through exploratory factor analysis

Abstract

Introduction: interest in evaluating the improvements resulting from external evaluation processes in higher education has revealed that there is a lack of objective instruments available for this purpose. Consequently, this study presents the design and validation of an instrument for evaluating the improvement effect of the accreditation system of Spanish university degrees. Methodology: a 108-item questionnaire was prepared and was applied to a sample of 1964 subjects from different university groups (students, teachers, management, etc.). Its reliability and construct validity were analysed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Results: analysis of the instrument’s technical characteristics showed high reliability, both overall and at the dimensional level, with Cronbach’s α and McDonald’s ω being greater than .95. The EFA identified eight factors that contained the 105 items finally included, explaining 77.37% of the variance in Discussion and conclusions: these results all indicate that the instrument designed is reliable and valid, with a solid multidimensional structure that makes it possible to evaluate the impact of the accreditation system on various aspects of Spanish university degrees.