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Comisión Nacional de Evaluación y Acreditación Universitaria
Av. Santa Fe 1385 - 4th Floor (C1059ABH) Ciudad de Buenos Aires,
República Argentina
Tel.: (54-11) 4815-1767/1798/1545
Fax: (54-11) 4815-0744
E-mail: consulta@coneau.gov.ar
Website: http://www.coneau.edu.ar
Accreditation Process:
The National Commission for University Evaluation and Accreditation (CONEAU) is a decentralized agency at the Argentina's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. It is the only government agency for university evaluation and accreditation and it started operating in 1996. CONEAU was established to foster improvements of the university education in Argentina. CONEAU is in charge of the following functions: external evaluation universities; accreditation of government regulated undergraduate and graduate programs; and issuance of recommendations on institutional projects for new public universities. CONEAU also processes provisional and final applications for authorization of private institutions. It is also responsible for providing recognition to private agencies for university evaluation and accreditation. Its main functions are:
- To evaluate projects submitted by new public and private universities.
- To perform external evaluation of university institutions.
- To grant accreditation to government regulated undergraduate programs.
- To grant accreditation to graduate programs.
- To conduct evaluation processes for accreditation of private evaluation and accreditation organizations.
External Evaluations
The main objective of external evaluations is to assist institutions with their proposals for enhancing quality. External evaluations involve the analysis of the characteristics and development of university institutions in relation to their mission and objectives. These evaluations are conducted every six years at a minimum. They are complementary to self-evaluations performed by the institutions in the analysis of their own achievements and difficulties. External evaluation reports are public in nature.
Accreditation of Undergraduate Programs
CONEAU grants accreditation to undergraduate programs issuing degrees for government regulated professions, whose exercise could endanger the health, safety, rights, property or education of the country's inhabitants. The Ministry of Education, upon recommendation of the University Council, defines which professions fall within these categories and are subjected to the CONEAU accreditation process. In these cases the Higher Education Act No. 24.521 establishes the accreditation as a pre-requisite to grant validity to degrees for a maximum period of six years. This process of accreditation of undergraduate degree courses is applicable not only to current degree courses but also applies to new degree courses.
The aim of accreditation is the assurance of compliance with minimum quality standards of undergraduate programs that fail within the provisions of the Act, and to promote improvements of undergraduate degree courses that do not comply with the standards established by the Ministry upon recommendation of the University Council. The standards define the scope of each degree, the minimum teaching load, the core curricula, and the required practical training for every degree course involved in the proceedings. Until now, the Ministry has issued standards for the medical degree course, for seventeen different engineering degree course, for agronomy, pharmacy and biochemistry programs as well as for architecture and, recently, for other degree courses. As a result of these ministerial resolutions, CONEAU starts an accreditation program by making a public call for accreditation applications by the university courses involved in each case.
