The Legitimacy of Evaluation: A Comparison of Finnish and English Institutional Evaluations of Higher Education

Evaluation is an important issue in all European societies: it concerns all organisations and institutions whether they like it or not. Organisations in higher education are not an exception; on the contrary, during recent years, university evaluations have moved in a formal and routine direction. This book's hypothesis is that this development has strengthened the institutional tendencies of evaluation. By looking through the lens of legitimacy, this study analyses the ideologies, models and practices of English and Finnish higher education evaluations. The central question is: what gives modern higher education evaluation its legitimacy? This book shows readers the many-sided elements of legitimate evaluation and ends with conclusions that show the similarities and differences of institutional university evaluations in Finland and in England.