Comparative analysis of higher education study programs' quality, efficiency and effectiveness

Many definitions of quality, efficiency and effectiveness exist in literature and can be considered as the relationships between inputs, outputs and outcomes. From this point of view efficiency may be defined simply as the relation of outputs to inputs, effectiveness as the relation of outcomes to outputs and inputs, but quality as a measure of change of outputs and outcomes. The objective of this paper is evaluation of higher education study programs quality, efficiency and effectiveness in the case of Latvia University of Agriculture engineering study programs. The conceptual framework of quality, efficiency and effectiveness was defined, which allow to perform the comparative analyze of the study programs inputs, outputs and outcomes depending on the study year. It is concluded that even the quality, as the change of inputs or outputs, decreases, at the same time the quality, as the change of outcomes, can increase. If the efficiency of study program, as the relation of outputs to inputs, decreases at the same time the effectiveness of the study program, as the relation of outcomes to outputs or inputs, can increase depending on study year.