Presents assessment as a means toward systematically gauging the climate and culture of American colleges and universities and provides a brief overview of historical factors which impact today's concept of diversity. Includes a discussion of the number and location of incidents related to race, gender, and sexual orientation as reported by the…

Comparatively analyzes the process of and trends in program accreditation in parks and recreation curricula and health care, noting implications for the future of accreditation. The paper makes recommendations to improve specialized accreditation in parks and recreation due to the increasing demand for identifying quality via outcome measurement.…

Describes the process whereby the University of Luton, United Kingdom, applied for and received recognition in the Investors in People program, a British government effort to encourage organizations to value staff as a key resource in improving business performance. Notes rationale for applying for the award, preparation for the assessment visits,…

Evaluates the Swedish model of quality assurance of higher education by examining the response of institutions to 27 quality audits and 19 follow-up interviews. Discusses the relationship between top-down and bottom-up approaches to internal quality assurance and suggests that, with growing professionalization, more limited result-oriented audits…

Shows how financial and quality measures associated with the Balanced Scorecard (developed by Kaplan and Norton to measure organizational performance) can be applied to information technology (IT) user education and support in large research universities. Focuses on University Information Technology Services that has measured the quality of IT…

Analyzes results of over 500 subject review visits by Britain's Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. Notes that the grades show a significant increase over previous years and considers what may have caused this. Suggests that it is the result of improved institutional knowledge of the process and also genuine quality enhancement in the…

This paper explores whether it is possible to isolate independent effects of external quality audit (EQA) and concludes that effectiveness evaluations have a stronger foundation when the combined effects of university governance and management initiatives and government initiatives are examined together with EQA. The issue of how successful these…

The article discusses dimensions and criteria, which are used to assess the quality of higher education in different countries. The paper presents dimensions and criteria that could be appropriate for assessment of the quality of higher education at Lithuanian universities. Quality dimensions, assessment criteria and indicators are defined and…

For many colleges and universities, surveys constitute an important component of efforts to assess institutional effectiveness. Although the use of surveys in assessment is widespread, the National Center for Postsecondary Improvement (NCPI) report notes that examples of the use of survey results in academic decision making are relatively rare.…

In November 2003, Southeastern Oklahoma State University underwent a comprehensive reaccreditation visit conducted by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Throughout the visit, Southeastern was commended for the assessment culture that had been created on campus. The team concluded that…

This article addresses frequently asked questions about two new policies: a five-year term for NAEYC Accreditation and a 15-day window for validation visits, with 24 hours advance notice. How the five-year policy applies to a program seeking NAEYC Accreditation depends on the program's status in the accreditation process.

The Malcolm Baldrige Quality guideposts provide a comprehensive model for systematic quality improvement and innovation in colleges and universities.

This article describes the methodical problems of the ranking of Russian universities by the independent ranking agency RatER. The main features of this ranking system are public estimations of the quality of the higher education in Russia. The results of the sociological study were processed by the original statistical methods. The procedure…

This article presents the findings of a survey, conducted on league tables and rankings systems worldwide, including seventeen standard ones and one non-standard league table. Despite the capacity of existing league tables and rankings to meet the interest of the public of transparency and information on higher education institutions, ranking…

National and international rankings of institutional performance are playing a growing role in contemporary higher education. It is critical that researchers develop pragmatic, educationally sensitive and methodologically informed approaches for managing this aspect of higher education. This paper compares three approaches for modelling key…