The article analyses the role of peer review within broader external quality assurance schemes. Based on an analytical framework emphasising that modern quality assurance schemes are designed as a balancing act between standardised guidelines and professional judgement, the article uses data from a recent evaluation of NOKUT, the Norwegian Quality…

After more than two decades of external quality assurance, there is an increasing interest in questions concerning the impact and effects of this activity. Following an external evaluation of NOKUT--the Norwegian quality assurance agency, this article studies the impact of external quality assurance in detail by analysing quantitative and…

The emergence of the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG) for Quality Assurance has been seen as an important step towards realising the European Higher Education Area by creating more transparency and accountability in the area of quality assurance. The ESG also include standards as to how quality assurance agencies should be reviewed. In a…

The article is an epistemological analysis of quality, standards and quality assurance. A positivist, phenomenological and critical epistemological framework is used to explore the interrelationships between quality, standards and purposes and approaches to quality assurance. The article concludes with an embryonic analysis of the implementation…

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…

Various total quality management (TQM) approaches are explored and some core elements specified. Generic problems of TQM and those relating to higher education are analyzed. It is argued that while there are some aspects of TQM that are applicable in the collegiate setting, the specific approach is inapplicable in higher education. A new…

Following national adaptations to the Bologna-declaration, accreditation is increasingly becoming the most dominant form of quality assurance of higher education in Europe. Over the last decade, national authorities have set up both institutional and programme accreditation procedures, currently accompanied by a growing number of private…

There has been considerable debate about the impact of external quality assurance in higher education. This paper describes a discussion at the INQAAHE workshop in The Hague, attended by representatives of agencies, exploring the effects of external quality processes on institutions and programmes. The summary, probably for the first time,…

Argues that there is little rationale behind current methods of assessing higher-education quality because there is little exploration of what constitutes quality. Despite good intentions, quality monitoring has become overly bureaucratic, and potential for significant change is hampered by an inappropriate focus on accountability, not on…

The battle-lines are drawn up in the various struggles for control of supranational external quality monitoring (accreditation and evaluation). The different types of supranational quality processes are outlined (as they existed at the time of the presentation of the paper to the Conference). The question asked is: who benefits from the extension…

The concept of quality in higher education is discussed, including ways of thinking about quality, its relevance to higher education, interrelationships, and philosophical/political bases. The relative nature of quality is examined, and five differing conceptualizations are identified: quality as exception, perfection, fitness for purpose, value…

Introduces the special issue and summarizes the views of delegates about each of the conference's three themes: "Has external quality review had its day?"; "Has control of quality been usurped by the market and by information technology?"; and "Does the development of mass education necessarily mean the end of…

This paper outlines the preponderant approaches to external quality evaluation, including the purpose, focus, object, rationale, and methods of external evaluations. Accountability, compliance and, in some countries, control are much more frequent rationales for external monitoring than improvement. Research on the impact of quality monitoring is…

Purpose: To provide a history of the emergence of quality systems from the mid-1980s. To show how quality became a primary policy concern in higher education policy. To map the development of quality processes and raise questions about dominant approaches and express concerns for the future. Design/methodology/approach: Historical document…

This report discusses the application of the International Organization for Standards's ISO9000 quality assurance standard and Total Quality Management (TQM) to higher education in light of the "new collegialism." It defines the basic elements of ISO9000 and TQM, reviews the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches, and notes efforts…