The CoNEAU is made up of 12 members: three of them are designated by the National Interuniversity Council (national universities), one by the Council of Rectors of Private Universities, one by the National Academy of Education, three by the Senate of the Nation, three by the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation and one by the Ministry of Education. In turn, the Commission has an autonomous technical team divided into the different areas that make it up: Institutional Evaluation and Projects, Accreditation of Undergraduate Courses, Accreditation of Postgraduate Studies, Development and Institutional Relations, Administration Directorate, Systems and Registry of Experts and Library.[8]​.

The evaluations are carried out with experts summoned ad hoc organized into consultancies, advisory committees and peer committees, on the basis of which the decisions of the CoNEAU are based in each case. The members of the advisory and peer committees act autonomously, according to a code of ethics[9]​ and have the possibility of refraining from opening a trial if they consider it pertinent. Its first president was Emilio Fermín Mignone, activist of the human rights movement that emerged in Argentina during the military dictatorship that ruled between March 1976 and December 1983.[10]​.

Contenido

Desde el año 2009, la Comisión se integra por cuatro Direcciones: la Dirección de Evaluación Institucional; la Dirección de Acreditación de Carreras; la Dirección de Desarrollo, Planeamiento y Relaciones Internacionales y la Dirección de Administración, además de un Departamento de Asesoría Letrada (CONEAU, 2012).

La Dirección de Acreditación concentra las funciones de evaluación y acreditación de carreras y proyectos de grado cuyo ejercicio pudiera comprometer el interés público poniendo en riesgo de modo directo la salud, la seguridad, los derechos, los bienes o la formación de los habitantes (de acuerdo al artículo 43.º de la LES), y la evaluación y la acreditación de carreras y proyectos de carreras de posgrado de todas las disciplinas (de acuerdo al artículo 39.º de la LES).

Accreditation of undergraduate courses

The Commission is responsible for the evaluation and accreditation of all degree programs regulated by the State as long as their "professional practice could directly put at risk the health, safety, rights, property or training of the inhabitants".[11]​ To accredit these courses, standards set by the Ministry of Education are applied, which take into account: basic curricular contents, minimum workload and criteria for the intensity of practical training. The procedures and guidelines for accreditation are regulated through Ordinance No. 58/11, which is based on the provisions of Decree No. 499/95 (article 5) and Decree No. 173/96 (article 15).

Decree No. 499/95 (article 7) provides that accreditation constitutes a necessary condition for the official recognition and consequent national validity of the degree by the Ministry of Education. However, the functions of CONEAU and those of the Ministry are clearly differentiated. The powers and responsibilities of CONEAU are limited to the accreditation of courses, with accreditation being understood as a process of evaluation of academic quality, complementary to institutional evaluation and aimed at its improvement that has exclusively academic objectives, social and eventually political effects, but not legal ones. On the other hand, the powers and responsibilities of the Ministry have purely legal effects.

The accreditation processes begin when the CoNEAU makes a call for a certain number of courses, which after a deadline becomes mandatory. All universities must then begin the accreditation process for regulated courses, which follows a series of predetermined steps. The first phase corresponds to self-evaluation, where each university must prepare a report evaluating the situation of the courses to be accredited. The resulting report passes into the hands of a committee of peers appointed by the Commission, which after making the pertinent observations gives rise to an opinion (favorable or unfavorable).[12]​.

The CoNEAU may determine to accredit a degree for 6 or 3 years, depending on the results of the self-assessment and peer evaluation process, or not directly accredit it, in which case it will not be able to continue being taught under current conditions. If it is accredited for only 3 years, once the time has expired, the degree must undergo evaluation again to verify if the deficiencies or observations indicated in the previous accreditation process were resolved. Accreditation for 3 years takes place when the program does not meet all the standards but the final report establishes the possibility of reaching the required quality levels in the near future, or when the program meets all the established standards but has no graduates because a complete teaching cycle has not been completed.

To date, the Careers declared to be of public interest are: Law, Architecture, Biology, Biotechnology, Public Accountant, Nursing, Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Genetics, Geology, Computer Science, Engineering, Agronomic Engineering, Natural Resources Engineering, Forestry Engineering, Zootechnical Engineering, Medicine, Dentistry, Psychology, Chemistry, Veterinary Medicine.

It should be considered that projects from degree programs declared to be of public interest are also accredited, for the purposes of obtaining official recognition of the degree.

Accreditation of postgraduate courses

The accreditation of postgraduate courses is mandatory for all courses without disciplinary distinction. It does not exist as in the case of degree courses, some considered of public interest and others not. Argentine legislation considers postgraduate courses to include specialization courses, master's degrees and doctorates. Ministerial Res. 160/2011 indicates the criteria that are considered in the accreditation processes. If the university on which the degree depends requests it, postgraduate accreditations are graded A, B or C in descending order of academic quality.

Since its creation, the National Commission for University Evaluation and Accreditation has been the result of numerous criticisms from student sectors[13]​ and academics from Argentine public universities. During the enactment of the Higher Education Law in the 1990s, there were massive marches considering the neoliberal reform that could open the doors to a tariffication process. Even former members of the CoNEAU have expressed that the old Menem Law on Higher Education had been made in that sense.[14]​.

Since the implementation of the LES, different organizations and researchers have considered it appropriate to investigate the evaluation and accreditation mechanisms used in our country in order to identify, among other issues, their impact on educational quality (Mignone, 1995; Marquina, 2004; 2012; Toribio, 1999; Suasnabar, 2001; 2005; Fernández Lamarra, 2002; Sánchez Martínez 2002; Isuani, 2003; De Miguel Díaz, 2003; Aiello, 2007; Krotsch, 2007; Rinesi y Soprano, 2007; Giustiniani, 2008; Ruiz, 2009; Fraca, 2010; Pérez Rasetti, 2010; Nosiglia, 2010; Chiroleu, 2012; Corengia, 2015). From its reading, we identify, on the one hand, the uncritical views on the evaluation processes carried out that hardly recognize the difficulties associated with the evaluation process (official publications) and on the other hand, the positions that maintain the need for the eradication of any state evaluation and accreditation mechanism in defense of the full autonomy of university institutions (in particular, the positions of some national university institutions, teaching unions and student centers most visible in the period immediately after the sanction of the LES). Between both extremes, a vast number of works analyze particular aspects of the processes derived from the implementation of evaluation and accreditation mechanisms and their effect on educational quality.[15]​.

The Commission was seen as another instrument of the law aimed at simplifying and adapting the programs and careers of national universities to the demands of the market.

The CoNEAU is made up of 12 members: three of them are designated by the National Interuniversity Council (national universities), one by the Council of Rectors of Private Universities, one by the National Academy of Education, three by the Senate of the Nation, three by the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation and one by the Ministry of Education. In turn, the Commission has an autonomous technical team divided into the different areas that make it up: Institutional Evaluation and Projects, Accreditation of Undergraduate Courses, Accreditation of Postgraduate Studies, Development and Institutional Relations, Administration Directorate, Systems and Registry of Experts and Library.[8]​.

The evaluations are carried out with experts summoned ad hoc organized into consultancies, advisory committees and peer committees, on the basis of which the decisions of the CoNEAU are based in each case. The members of the advisory and peer committees act autonomously, according to a code of ethics[9]​ and have the possibility of refraining from opening a trial if they consider it pertinent. Its first president was Emilio Fermín Mignone, activist of the human rights movement that emerged in Argentina during the military dictatorship that ruled between March 1976 and December 1983.[10]​.

Contenido

Desde el año 2009, la Comisión se integra por cuatro Direcciones: la Dirección de Evaluación Institucional; la Dirección de Acreditación de Carreras; la Dirección de Desarrollo, Planeamiento y Relaciones Internacionales y la Dirección de Administración, además de un Departamento de Asesoría Letrada (CONEAU, 2012).

La Dirección de Acreditación concentra las funciones de evaluación y acreditación de carreras y proyectos de grado cuyo ejercicio pudiera comprometer el interés público poniendo en riesgo de modo directo la salud, la seguridad, los derechos, los bienes o la formación de los habitantes (de acuerdo al artículo 43.º de la LES), y la evaluación y la acreditación de carreras y proyectos de carreras de posgrado de todas las disciplinas (de acuerdo al artículo 39.º de la LES).

Accreditation of undergraduate courses

The Commission is responsible for the evaluation and accreditation of all degree programs regulated by the State as long as their "professional practice could directly put at risk the health, safety, rights, property or training of the inhabitants".[11]​ To accredit these courses, standards set by the Ministry of Education are applied, which take into account: basic curricular contents, minimum workload and criteria for the intensity of practical training. The procedures and guidelines for accreditation are regulated through Ordinance No. 58/11, which is based on the provisions of Decree No. 499/95 (article 5) and Decree No. 173/96 (article 15).

Decree No. 499/95 (article 7) provides that accreditation constitutes a necessary condition for the official recognition and consequent national validity of the degree by the Ministry of Education. However, the functions of CONEAU and those of the Ministry are clearly differentiated. The powers and responsibilities of CONEAU are limited to the accreditation of courses, with accreditation being understood as a process of evaluation of academic quality, complementary to institutional evaluation and aimed at its improvement that has exclusively academic objectives, social and eventually political effects, but not legal ones. On the other hand, the powers and responsibilities of the Ministry have purely legal effects.

The accreditation processes begin when the CoNEAU makes a call for a certain number of courses, which after a deadline becomes mandatory. All universities must then begin the accreditation process for regulated courses, which follows a series of predetermined steps. The first phase corresponds to self-evaluation, where each university must prepare a report evaluating the situation of the courses to be accredited. The resulting report passes into the hands of a committee of peers appointed by the Commission, which after making the pertinent observations gives rise to an opinion (favorable or unfavorable).[12]​.

The CoNEAU may determine to accredit a degree for 6 or 3 years, depending on the results of the self-assessment and peer evaluation process, or not directly accredit it, in which case it will not be able to continue being taught under current conditions. If it is accredited for only 3 years, once the time has expired, the degree must undergo evaluation again to verify if the deficiencies or observations indicated in the previous accreditation process were resolved. Accreditation for 3 years takes place when the program does not meet all the standards but the final report establishes the possibility of reaching the required quality levels in the near future, or when the program meets all the established standards but has no graduates because a complete teaching cycle has not been completed.

To date, the Careers declared to be of public interest are: Law, Architecture, Biology, Biotechnology, Public Accountant, Nursing, Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Genetics, Geology, Computer Science, Engineering, Agronomic Engineering, Natural Resources Engineering, Forestry Engineering, Zootechnical Engineering, Medicine, Dentistry, Psychology, Chemistry, Veterinary Medicine.

It should be considered that projects from degree programs declared to be of public interest are also accredited, for the purposes of obtaining official recognition of the degree.

Accreditation of postgraduate courses

The accreditation of postgraduate courses is mandatory for all courses without disciplinary distinction. It does not exist as in the case of degree courses, some considered of public interest and others not. Argentine legislation considers postgraduate courses to include specialization courses, master's degrees and doctorates. Ministerial Res. 160/2011 indicates the criteria that are considered in the accreditation processes. If the university on which the degree depends requests it, postgraduate accreditations are graded A, B or C in descending order of academic quality.

Since its creation, the National Commission for University Evaluation and Accreditation has been the result of numerous criticisms from student sectors[13]​ and academics from Argentine public universities. During the enactment of the Higher Education Law in the 1990s, there were massive marches considering the neoliberal reform that could open the doors to a tariffication process. Even former members of the CoNEAU have expressed that the old Menem Law on Higher Education had been made in that sense.[14]​.

Since the implementation of the LES, different organizations and researchers have considered it appropriate to investigate the evaluation and accreditation mechanisms used in our country in order to identify, among other issues, their impact on educational quality (Mignone, 1995; Marquina, 2004; 2012; Toribio, 1999; Suasnabar, 2001; 2005; Fernández Lamarra, 2002; Sánchez Martínez 2002; Isuani, 2003; De Miguel Díaz, 2003; Aiello, 2007; Krotsch, 2007; Rinesi y Soprano, 2007; Giustiniani, 2008; Ruiz, 2009; Fraca, 2010; Pérez Rasetti, 2010; Nosiglia, 2010; Chiroleu, 2012; Corengia, 2015). From its reading, we identify, on the one hand, the uncritical views on the evaluation processes carried out that hardly recognize the difficulties associated with the evaluation process (official publications) and on the other hand, the positions that maintain the need for the eradication of any state evaluation and accreditation mechanism in defense of the full autonomy of university institutions (in particular, the positions of some national university institutions, teaching unions and student centers most visible in the period immediately after the sanction of the LES). Between both extremes, a vast number of works analyze particular aspects of the processes derived from the implementation of evaluation and accreditation mechanisms and their effect on educational quality.[15]​.

The Commission was seen as another instrument of the law aimed at simplifying and adapting the programs and careers of national universities to the demands of the market.