An Evaluation of the Program Objectives and Outcomes of the Business Administration Departments at Fifteen Turkish Universities and Their Compliance with the Bologna Process

Abstract

Defining quality assurance in higher education as "a comprehensive, systematic, and regular assessment of an education institution’s educational, research, and administrative services and improving their quality," Günay (2012) states that the efforts of the European countries to build a common European higher education area and research platform have been shaped by the "Bologna Process." The educational programs developed under the Bologna Process support not only the quality assurance but also the national standardization of these programs (Kavak, Seferoğlu, Kabasakal, Zeynep Şen ve Uludağ, 2015). This paper aims to research and evaluate the realization or compliance levels of Bachelor of Science level business administration programs at fifteen universities in Turkey with regard to the Bologna Process and the National Qualifications Framework for Higher Education in Turkey (NQF-HETR). In this regard, the information about the 2018-2019 Business Administration curricula, program objectives, program outputs, and course content of these selected universities was reviewed from their publicly available websites. To evaluate their adherence to the Turkish Higher Education Quality Council’s rules, the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area, and international accreditation standards, the collected results were tabulated to comparatively analyze these selected business programs. The results revealed that the selected business administration schools in Turkey provided their program information in a non-standardized manner and that there were inadequacies in complying with the Bologna Process as well as establishing globally accepted "program objectives" expected from an accredited business program.