Quality assurance and quality development represent central challenges of higher education institutions (HEIs). In this context, the term quality culture has gained increasing attention. Quality culture refers to an organizational culture, which emphasizes the importance of continuous quality improvement, shared attitudes, and commitment towards…

This article seeks to spark a dialectic discussion on the establishment of a set of professional competencies for quality assurance practitioners who serve in external quality assurance agencies in higher education. Such a need is identified due to the shortage of relevant and sufficient coverage in the quality assurance literature. To…

Schools that build and support high levels of trust between stakeholder groups have been shown to support greater collaboration amongst those groups, including parents, teachers, administrators, and students (Tschannen-Moran, 2001). When stakeholders in schools feel the sense of psychological safety that accompanies trust, they are more willing or…

The quality of e-learning can be defined in many different ways, reflecting different stakeholders and the complexity of the systems and processes used in higher education. These different conceptions of quality can be mutually contradictory and, while politically significant, may also be beyond the direct control or influence of institutional…

This paper reviews the experiences and learnings derived from the European Foundation for Management Development's programme accreditation teChnology-Enhanced Learning (EFMD CEL) programme accreditation. The EFMD CEL quality framework is briefly described, and an overview of the programmes that have pursued accreditation is presented.…

The article grounds the structure of the external evaluation of colleges at the level of the non-university higher education sector, and it reveals the problems met in this process as well as possibilities for their solution: the phenomenon of the external evaluation of colleges is discussed and its concept is presented; the external evaluation…

Student success is at the heart of both institutional effectiveness and the community college mission, yet measuring such success at community colleges is problematic. This article highlights three efforts to grapple with this problem--a multistate work group of system- and state-level policymakers to create an improved set of student success…

As many experienced board members know, given the national debate in recent years over institutional accountability, learning--the heart of the educational enterprise--is often treated as a by-product of other more measurable processes. The fact is, no matter how excellent the curricula, no matter how stellar the faculty, no matter how talented…

This report is the support document to "Tracking Our Success: How TAFE Institutes Measure Their Effectiveness and Efficiency". It comprises reports on each of the nine technical and further education (TAFE) institutes that have taken part in the study. Information was collected via in-depth interviews with chief executive officers and…

This article reports on the New Zealand education quality assurance and school monitoring system, including its framework, and responsibilities of agencies. It first gives an outline of the education system in New Zealand, and then introduces the role of school charters and levels of schooling. To ensure the quality of schools, the methods of…

Discusses the notion of continuous quality measurement for outcomes assessment in higher education and describes a technology-based continuous quality measurement system (QMS) that has been developed and implemented at the University of Louisville. Discusses the role of QMS in the university's quality improvement scheme and its initial impacts on…

The National Community College Benchmark Project (NCCBP) provides community colleges with a system to report data on key learning outcomes and indicators of institutional effectiveness and to compare their data with national norms and data from selected peer institutions. This chapter describes the development, current features, and anticipated…

The College Outcomes Evaluation Program, a New Jersey assessment plan, is intended to serve as an official blueprint for improving state higher education. It outlines specific goals for gauging quality but gives institutions leeway to carry them out. (MLW)

If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a strong network of committed colleagues to launch an initiative like "SENSE." From its conception in fall 2006 to the first national administration in fall 2009, the Survey of Entering Student Engagement ("SENSE") has been supported by key individuals and groups, without whom there would have been…

University of Central Florida faculty and administrators recently endorsed a library-initiated proposal to integrate information fluency across the curriculum. The information fluency proposal was drafted in response to a university-wide call for proposals for a quality enhancement plan, which is a requirement for reaffirmation by the…