Quality assurance (QA) has gained momentum in South African higher education with national reviews of MBA, MEd, PGECE, BEd and ACE programmes. This article presents an overview of global trends in QA, and comments on some aspects particular to the South African national framework. It explores how the concepts of democracy, knowledge, and social…

Statistics show that university presidents at nondenominational and public institutions in the north make a lot more money. Presidents generally also seem to be rewarded for increasing the spending per student. Such indices of quality as "U.S. News" ranking and high SAT scores do relate to presidential pay, but not robustly, and Mitchell Langbert…

The Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund was established by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, UK, with the declared aims of enhancing the quality of teaching and learning and raising the status of teaching among higher education institutions. This paper considers the three strands of the initiative--subject, institutional, and…

It is now a matter of routine that schools in England are able to demonstrate the value of their work in terms of "impact" and "outcomes." In the province of imaginative education this is problematic. While Government has sought to create a new relationship between inspection and school self-evaluation, this in effect has…

This paper presents the first large study of public management quality and its effect on program performance. Using 5 years of data from more than 1000 Texas school districts, the authors measure quality as the additional salary paid to school superintendents over and above the normal determinants of salary. This measure of managerial quality is…

In the last decade, voluntary efforts by firms to reduce their environmental impacts have received increasing attention from both policymakers and scholars. This article discusses polluters' incentives to reduce their releases. In particular, using data from Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory, it examines the impacts of conventional…

This paper considers the role of quality assurance in e-learning; reflecting on the conditions necessary for successful e-learning. It reviews some of the current international work on quality assurance in this area and goes on to consider the ways in which the quality of a process or activity can be assessed--focusing on the use of benchmarking…

The labor quality index (LQI) not only serves as an important reference for monitoring the progress of the sustainable development of a country, but it can also serve as an important parameter for economic analysis. To compile such an index for Taiwan, we conducted two large-scale surveys of 1000 major enterprises and 844 union leaders,…

Quality control policies towards Dutch vocational schools have changed dramatically because the government questioned examination quality. Schools must now demonstrate assessment quality to a new Examination Quality Center. Since teachers often design assessments, they must be involved in quality issues. This study therefore explores teachers'…

This document consists of six issues of a newsletter entitled "Academy Update", extending from fall 1992 through fall 1995 (three years). This serial is published by the National Academy of Early Childhood (NAEYC) programs to improve and recognize the quality of care and education provided for young children in early childhood programs. The…

The British experience of nationwide research quality assessments and new measures to improve accountability are described. Consequences for the higher education system and for individual institutions are examined. Three national assessments of the quality of research in the United Kingdom (U.K.) in 1986, 1989, and 1992 have provided a standard…

In 1992 the government of New South Wales, Australia, announced its commitment to a program of quality-assurance reviews of schools. The New South Wales school system plans to implement a quality-assurance system, which is process-based on the following: a primary focus on student learning, clear and shared direction, focused involvement and…

This booklet, which is designed primarily for college-level instructors, curriculum developers, and instructional designers, explains the processes of assessing technical and occupational courses for the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) competencies and planning for SCANS inclusion in new or existing courses and…

A formal governance system was adopted by the Board of Trustees in April 1991 at Burlington County College in New Jersey after the Commission on Higher Education and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools observed that it was lacking. The policy defines the path for maintaining a governance structure which fosters clear and timely…

This report addresses the issue of "academic productivity," and the critical views of academia held by the public. The section titled "Quality Academics, Quality Productivity," posits that using new notions of productivity, with their emphasis on quality rather than quantity, will allow academia to increase its own…