In this publication, quality assurance is seen as part of the public responsibility for higher education. The contributions by policy makers and practitioners consider the role of quality assurance as an element of higher education governance and explore its function in the recognition of qualifications. Case studies illustrate its various aspects in two different national settings.--Publisher's description.
This report assesses the status and practice of higher education quality assurance in Sub - Sahara Africa, focusing on degree - granting tertiary institutions. A main finding is that structured national - level quality assurance processes in African higher education are a very recent phenomenon and that most countries face major capacity constrains. Only about a third of them have established structured national quality assurance mechanism, often only as recently as during the last ten years. Activities differ in their scope and rigor, ranging from simple licensing of institutions by the minister responsible for higher education, to comprehensive system - wide program accreditation and ranking of institutions. Within institutions of higher learning, self assessment and academic audits are gradually being adopted to supplement traditional quality assurance methods. However, knowledge about and experience with self - assessments are limited. The main challenges to quality assurance system in Africa are cost and human capacity requirements. For countries with large tertiary systems, the report recommends institutional, rather than program accreditation as a cost - effective option. However, where tertiary systems are small and underdeveloped, a less formal self - assessment for each institution may be necessary until the capacity could be strengthened to support a more formal nation quality assurance agency in the long run.
The topic of achieving and assuring quality in every higher education institution continues to be both relevant and urgent worldwide. This volume presents a considered discussion of a range of facets of the issue, drawing on the findings of a 3 year EU research programme involving seven countries: Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Latvia, Portugal, Poland, Slovakia and the Netherlands. Topics include access, student assessment, governance, stakeholders, academic faculty, information and the interface between the secondary and tertiary sectors. The authors, all of whom are drawn from the research teams, explore particular aspects of the research objectives. These aim to identify the drivers and overcome the barriers to establishing high quality in both European higher education, in relation to the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance and, by implication, in worldwide higher education.
The management of quality and sustainability in higher education institutions ensures that proper standards are maintained. Such enforced standardization allows for the highest caliber of training opportunities for various fields and disciplines. The Handbook of Research on Quality Assurance and Value Management in Higher Education is an authoritative reference source for the latest scholarly research on quality management and assurance programs and standards in college-level environments. Highlighting global perspectives on academic and professional learning, this book is ideally designed for researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and professionals actively involved in the field of higher education.
This volume delivers a cutting-edge analysis on vernacular globalization, or how local forces mediate global trends. It delves into the vital facets of the quest for global competitiveness, including: Global university rankings World-class universities University mergers Quality assurance Cross-border higher education International education hubs. The authors situate their topics within current international scholarship and demonstrate the myriad avenues through which local actors in higher education may respond to global competition. They pose critical questions about the impact of global competition in an increasingly hierarchical higher education environment, interrogating the potential for social injustice that arises. By providing an alternative perspective to the descriptive, normative approach that dominates the scholarship on global competition in higher education, the chapters in this volume open a fresh and invaluable dialogue in this arena. This is the 168th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Higher Education. Addressed to presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other higher education decision makers on all kinds of campuses, it provides timely information and authoritative advice about major issues and administrative problems confronting every institution.
Since the end of the 1990s, the Chinese higher education system has seen a dramatic expansion of enrolment. China currently has the largest higher education system in the world, however, the rapid growth resulted in concerns being raised about the quality of the system. In response, an array of external quality assessment schemes of higher education has been established, based on suggested policy designs and reforms. The establishment of an effective quality assurance mechanism is a major challenge for universities around the world, therefore, what experience and lessons can be learned from the Chinese practice? This book analyses the external quality assurance system of higher education in China. It brings together scholarship on this topic by renowned Chinese experts, reporting and discussing recent policy developments and research. It presents and analyses various quality evaluation schemes, covering undergraduate, postgraduate, and vocational levels of higher education. The theoretical roots and value orientation of Chinese higher education quality assurance are also reflected on. This volume was originally published as a special issue of Chinese Education and Society.
This review examines the external systems in place to assure the quality of higher education in Brazil. It highlights the relative success of the Brazilian quality assurance model in regulating market entry for private operators in Brazil, which cater to over 70% of students. But it also calls ...
Rethinking the purpose and the aim of higher education has led to new and alternative ways to assure the quality of different higher education systems. In the case studies of six OECD countries, Andrea Bernhard exemplifies the ongoing trends and changes of quality assurance systems along peer-reviewed country reports and interviews with national and international experts. The comparative analysis is based on international, descriptive, discursive, and analytical aspects concentrating on the theoretical concepts of massification, diversification, privatisation, and internationalisation. The author highlights the leading trend towards quality assurance within an international higher education area and provides recommendations to establish a functioning quality assurance system within the observed higher education systems and beyond their borders. This book is valuable reading for academics, practitioners, and policy makers in the field of higher education.
The Global Trends in Higher Education Quality Assurance: Challenges and Opportunities in Internal and External Quality Assurance provides a comprehensive coverage of the trends and developments in higher education quality assurance as they refer to legitimacy/trust, efficiency and relevance.
Building on Ourania Filippakou’s previous work on higher education in the fields of governance, neoliberalism, university entrepreneurialism and marketization, institutional and social stratification, Rethinking Higher Education and the Crisis of Legitimation in Europe contributes to the debate on higher education from a critical policy perspective. Introducing new ideas on the relationships between the alleged pursuit of excellence in higher education and the ways in which both deploys and reflects how power is wielded in Europe and other neoliberal capitalist societies. The term "legitimation" is here coined to emphasize how new coercive strategies, political decisions, and management styles have emerged in the age of excellence in higher education. The book concludes with a more personal reflection on the neutrality of higher education and its illusory promises.
The Lisbon Recognition Convention, developed by the Council of Europe and UNESCO, is the main international legal text on the international recognition of qualifications and has been ratified by more than 50 countries. Few Council of Europe conventions have achieved a greater number of ratifications, and the political importance of the Lisbon Recognition Convention is very considerable. The recognition of qualifications is a necessary, if not sufficient, condition for both student and labour mobility. To mark the 15th anniversary of the convention, this book examines some of the challenges to the international recognition of qualifications. The convention is an essential legal text, but it needs to be put into better practice. How can learners use their degrees and qualifications in a new country, without losing the real value of those qualifications? The authors, who come from a variety of backgrounds, review the policies and practice of recognition, link recognition to the broader higher education policy debate and consider the role of recognition in enabling individuals to move freely across borders.
