Impact evaluation for a university-territory continuing education

Abstract

Impact evaluation constitutes an academic policy area that, if virtuously practiced, safeguards higher education, society in all its parts and their joint potential of improvement in quality of life. The one of continuing education is a theme on which university, in front of a historical context and a job market without precedent, is called to deal with, along with territory. The proposal aims to describe the change in the institutional relationship between university and society and the role that continuing education can play. Furthermore, the proposal reports some operational suggestions on the co-designed conduct of impact evaluation, accessible to the academic population and non-specialist partners. The theorical framework consists in the paradigm of ‘knowledge exchange and collaboration’, proposed by European governance directives and bodies responsible of academic quality assurance processes.