This paper argues that the current approach to educational quality formation in transnational higher education promotes educational imperialism, and that guidelines and practices should be altered to embrace context-sensitive measures of quality. The claims are sustained by findings from a study that investigated how academics understood and…

Background: National minimum standards for residential care homes were introduced following the Care Standards Act 2000 in response to concern about the lack of consistency and poor quality services. These standards are intended to reflect outcomes for service users and to be comprehensive in scope. Method: This study compared ratings made by care…

This paper argues that imperialism continues to exist today. It focuses on the ideational dimension of such power constellation and highlights the role of "educational diplomacy". Specifically, it examines norm-settings within international educational politics as a way of identifying shifts within what might be called benevolent…

A major motorcycle vendor, based in the U.S. Midwest, is the world's largest custom V-Twin motorcycle manufacturer and domestically the second largest motorcycle manufacturer behind Harley-Davidson. This project describes the process used used by a K-State undergraduate distance learning student to design and develop the initial version of a…

2010 sees the end of the process of establishing the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Although not all countries may have achieved all the objectives, many are those countries and universities who have implemented many of the targets set. Within the Bologna Process, there have been many developments such as: European Credit Transfer and…

Since 1994, the South African higher education system, fragmented and divided along racial lines during the years of apartheid, has been subject to a wide range of initiatives directed at bringing about the "transformation" necessary for a more equitable dispensation and, ultimately, a new social order. One of the "levers"…

This article presents the findings of exploratory research on the relationship of external quality assurance (EQA) systems and equity policies conducted at the UNESCO Institute for Educational Planning. Authors from Australia, Brazil, India and South Africa were invited to discuss this relationship in the context of their respective higher…

Operating a quality assurance system in tertiary education is the rule rather than the exception, because of the belief that it will improve quality. However, proving this is not easy. This study examines three ways of providing the evidence: the a "priori" method, the stepwise backtracking method, and the external evaluation method. The…

This article summarises/analyses the higher education reforms proposed by the "Spellings Commission" in the United States on quality assurance and accountability, and draws attention to the links I see between these reform proposals and the Bologna Process. I trace a brief history of the Spellings Commission and analyse it in order to…

The appropriate importation and effective utilization of superior-quality foreign higher education resources are crucial to enhance the level and quality of school administration cooperation with foreign partners because it can not only make up for the shortage in domestic education resources and push forward China's higher education reform but…

This article advocates for the need to link early childhood program quality and professional development, with a particular focus on how this topic relates to early childhood inclusion. There is consensus in the early childhood field about various components of program quality for young children in general, and a number of states now have program…

Purpose: Small and specialist inter-disciplinary conferences, particularly those relating to technology enhanced learning such as International Conference on Information and Communications Technology in Education, provide valuable opportunities for academics and academic-related/professional staff to report upon their research and development…

In the last 2 decades, educational systems have developed accountability policies in which schools maintain autonomy for their pedagogical, instructional, and organizational practices (internal control). At the same time, they are held accountable to public authorities (external control) for the quality of their education. It is not clear whether…

This paper offers seven things one should know about open textbook publishing. These seven facts are: (1) The open educational resources model, including textbooks, has emerged as a response to rising text prices, a need for greater access to high-quality learning materials, the proliferation of e-reader devices, and a trend in publishing toward…

This report examines the contribution of self-evaluation to internal review processes in Scotland's colleges. It identifies the range of methodologies used by colleges, what makes these effective and what needs to improve further. It explores in particular, the extent to which self-evaluation has a positive impact on learners' experiences. The…