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Quality means decency–on the quality of teaching through accreditation of the course?

  • Biomonitoring of atmospheric pollution: possibilities and future challenges
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Abstract

The term “accreditation” applies to the attempts in various fields of scientific work and administration. It refers to an acknowledgement of some particular positive (wanted) property being present in or brought about by either a procedure or technical system, an acknowledgement which is then formally issued by some authority generally accepted to be able to prove and file such statements. Bioindication & Biomonitoring (B&B) technologies are highly influenced by accreditation procedures, because both B&B technologies are often related to accreditation during the overall instrumental measurement processes applied. As an example, tuna fish used for (bio) monitoring salt water systems on pollution by Pb will be presented. Analytical measurement results from the International Measurement Evaluation Programme (IMEP 20) and additionally the construction of the university course “Integrative sustainable management: quality, environmental, health, safety and risk management (QUAR)” are reviewed in this respect. It was a serious finding by the multi-participant IMEP study that neither quality control measures nor accreditation actually ensure improved quality of measurement results, i.e. data produced by analytical laboratories. Accordingly, even though the accreditation of study curricula is often done with utmost diligence and precision, and while it is fairly important for making study curricula throughout Europe (and the World) fitting and comparable to each other to get study results produced and tested at university X also be accepted when changing to university Y, we cannot assume or take for granted that the mere protocol of accreditation will do anything positive to improve the chance to get better or “more correct” results. A single member of lab staff or professor changing to some other position might seriously compromise the turnout of some analytical lab or university course at least in the short term regardless of whether accreditation was done or not. As consequence, data obtained by B&B technologies have to be discussed and handled with the highest care to reach acceptable and scientifically sound goals of quality.

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Notes

  1. lat. accredere: to believe to be true

  2. Defintions given by Markert et al. (1997).

  3. on both national and EU levels, you are not free to select any of the available methods of sample preparation, processing and analysis if you are to produce results which can be used in court (e.g. when environmental offences are concerned) but then you have to comply with certain protocols given by norms (in Germany: DIN): you are expected to determine mercury contents by this procedure and that of PAHs (e.g.) by that one, sometimes even precluding more recent ways of sample processing and extraction.

  4. we are aware that, strictly speaking, there is nothing like “more correct” (in German: richtiger), as there are no improvements of terms right or true or correct. Something may either be right or true or correct or else untrue wrong, and/or not correct. Yet this approach is acceptable here as analytical results do not exist in a dichotomy of truism or a “bloody lie”, but are measured producing a certain scatter of measured data even if the same sample is subjected to the same kind of analysis by the same people on the same analytical gear. Then this scatter among data corresponds to a standard deviation which gives some statistical weight to the results which permits to state one is “more correct” indeed than another.

  5. As a matter of fact, student’s mobility (switching among universities) decreased subsequent to the Bologna implementation in both bachelor and master study phases.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank a thousand-fold a lot of colleagues distributed all over the globe, who influence our thoughts and ideas in- and extensively in relation to all the topics given above (in parts very contrary) in discussions during the past years and/or decades. A special thank you goes to the independent reviewers for their critical comments and for checking on the quality of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Institute of Scientific Networks (EISN-Institute.de), Fliederweg 17, Haren/Erika, 49733, Germany

    Bernd Markert & Simone Wünschmann

  2. Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Applied Sciences, Theodor-Körner-Allee 16, Zittau, 02763, Germany

    Bernd Delakowitz

  3. Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Dresden, International Graduate School Zittau Research Group of Environmental Chemistry, Markt 23, Zittau, 02763, Germany

    Stefan Fränzle

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  1. Bernd Markert
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Correspondence to Bernd Markert.

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Markert, B., Delakowitz, B., Fränzle, S. et al. Quality means decency–on the quality of teaching through accreditation of the course?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 11940–11948 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5599-8

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