The Role of the Accreditation Process in Introducing Innovations Into Higher Education in Serbia

Introduction

Higher education has a deep social impact and importance. Consequently, it is often a subject of interest not only for the public policy creators, but also for the academic researchers. Innovations in the field of higher education are especially important since they revitalize this sector of society and enable it to constantly give a great contribution to social and economic development (Getz, Siegfried, & Anderson, 1997; Curry, 1992; Van Vught, 1989). However, initiating, directing, and realization of innovations in the higher education sector are very challenging because the higher education organizations – the ones that should be the realizers of innovations – are very often conservative and show difficulties in accepting and implementing the changes (Schneckenberg, 2009; Elton, 2003; Berg & Ostergren, 1977). Hence, it is not surprising that a large amount of research is dedicated precisely to the subject of inciting innovations in higher education. One of the processes that could have a positive catalyzing effect on initiating, accepting, and spreading of innovations in higher education is accreditation (Casile & Davis-Blake, 2002). Through accreditation, certain standards of structure and functioning are imposed on higher education organizations which could be used to introduce innovations into higher education. This role of the accreditation process is precisely the object of research in this paper.

In this paper, the innovations are treated as a separate type of changes, since every innovation is change, but not every change is innovation. Innovation is, indeed, the change that brings an important novelty into the processes or products of an organization. Any type of changes in an organization, even the innovative ones, may come from two sources: the external environment and the organization itself. For a long time, there has been a consensus in the literature that, observed by their cause or source, there are two main types of changes: external and internal (Porras & Robertson, 1987). Internal changes, or organizational development, occur due to the changes within the organization itself. The source of changes in this case is the development of competencies of the organization itself, in particular through the use of knowledge, ideas, or potential of the employees. In such changes, the management has a high degree of discretion, since they can use, but also ignore the internal causes of changes. On the other hand, external changes, or organizational adaptation, occur due to changes in the environment to which the organization must adapt. External changes may be initiated by the changes in market, economic, legal-institutional, or demographic environment. In such changes, the organization management does not have much room for discretion, and must change the organization and introduce novelties in it in order to adapt to and survive in the environment.

One of the important and common external sources of changes, and even innovations, in organization is the legal-institutional environment. The alterations of laws, standards, norms, and other regulations that govern organizations’ functioning almost inevitably cause changes in organizations themselves, and they must adapt to these changes that are supported by some authority (executive government, professional associations, and the like). If changes originating from the legal-institutional environment bring a certain degree of novelties and discontinuity into the structure or functioning of organization, then they may initiate innovations within the organizations. The accreditation process in higher education is precisely the process in which the legal-institutional environment of higher education institutions is being changed. If these changes are innovative and if the higher education institutions accept and implement them, the accreditation process will be the source of innovations in higher education.