External quality audits are now being used in universities across the world to improve quality assurance, accountability for quality education and transparency of public funding of higher education. Some countries such as Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark have had external quality audits for more than a decade but there…

It might not have been quite what he had in mind when he said it, but Aristotle was right: good quality assurance must be a habit embedded at every level within higher education, not an isolated occurrence. But even good habits can become mere routine, in danger of being emptied of their original purpose and meaning. Periodically, review and…

The annual meeting of the ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) IQA (internal quality assurance) Group gathered some 60 participants in the premises of the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO) in The Hague in June 2009. This seminar was a successful follow-up to the first ENQA IQA…

A pilot study evaluated participation of 18 undergraduate students for one year in two Students' Quality Control Circles (SQCC) at the Faculty of Business and Management, Institut Teknologi MARA (Malaysia). Feedback from the students indicated that the SQCC was a suitable learning process and that it could be adopted as a subject. (DB)

The article examines reasons for the decline in use of quality circles in higher education. A 1988 survey of eight universities and colleges using circles in 1986 found that because quality circle principles were violated, similar problems (such as inadequate training, problematic group membership, and exclusion of supervisors) were encountered at…

Discussion of Total Quality Management (TQM) highlights its history in business and industry, explains its use in higher education settings, and describes recent quality efforts in library services. Topics addressed include a history of quality; barriers to quality control; examples at Pennsylvania State University; and learning opportunities for…

The 11 essays in this book address the issue of whether total quality management at institutions of higher learning offers the same benefits and promises as it does in other sectors. Titles include: (1) "Toward an Understanding of Total Quality Management: Its Relevance and Contribution to Higher Education" (Ronald R. Sims and Serbrenia…

Running a university is fast becoming more challenging than managing a large corporation, in part due to greater quality demands by more groups in the face of shrinking resources and budget cuts. This paper argues against universities conducting business as usual in the face of societal change and increasingly greater challenges, and presents…

Explains use of quality circles, a system of regular faculty meetings with students to discuss how a course is going, in law courses. Argues that quality circles give constructive criticism of teaching, let teachers counter criticisms and explain methods, help with diversity issues, offer a mechanism for criticizing students, and give students a…

This book is addressed to educators and work-place trainers interested in applying the Malcolm Baldrige award criteria and/or the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9000 training guidelines for program improvement. An initial section compares and contrasts the ISO standards and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award…