The desire to enhance the quality of the services provided by higher education institutions in the UK has led to the development of a series of benchmarking performance indicators to aid the quality management process. This paper examines whether or not similar indicators could be developed for use as tools in the management of quality within…

The UK higher education sector is grounded in an academic culture protective of its autonomy in the exercise of academic judgement within a flexible and internally validated tradition. However, the socio-political demands placed upon this sector articulate an outcomes-based, transparent and consistent model of higher education provision, as…

Purpose: The aim of this study is to show that it is not necessary to use one of the current models of quality management. Self-evaluation is to be considered as an essential practice for further education providers willing to improve their quality. The study aims to propose a quality framework with field-related criteria.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine issues of quality and quality assurance in Kenyan schools, identify reasons why Kenya government has difficulties in achieving its well documented search for quality education and to trace the process for ensuring the accountability of teachers in Kenya. This focus is done under conditions of…

Higher education in the UK espouses to develop intelligence and critical skills in undergraduates. To do this requires exposing students to challenge and thus risk. However, current models of quality assurance are risk-averse and thus potentially limit the scope of creative learning and teaching strategies. Using two case studies, this paper…

The purpose of the study is to describe the evaluation and quality assurance practices employed in the basic units of Finnish and Italian universities and analyse the impact of the Bologna process on quality assessment. The data consist of interviews (n=30) conducted in Finland and Italy. The results suggest that: (1) evaluation and quality…

This paper deals with the potential failure of evaluation in Italian universities and shows how it risks slipping towards ritual behaviour. The study uses empirical data collected with a closed answer questionnaire and a series of open interviews with top-level university representatives and evaluators to examine the real and potential influence…

Universities in many western nations are experiencing increasing performance measures for academic accountability. This paper maps the pitted pathway that has led Australian universities from mentoring to monitoring and from performance enhancement to performance evaluation, and reviews implications for teaching and learning in higher education.…

The present paper argues that university quality assurance (QA) promotes a masculinist culture leading to systemic discrimination against female academics. The analysis relates to the question of what it is about academic life that results in persistent gender inequality. Based on an ethnographically informed comparative study, textual/discourse…

After the 2008 Olympics is concluded and commentators and journalists internationally begin the process of evaluating Beijing's performance as the host city, one of the primary elements to be analyzed will be the quality of visitor service provided by more than 70,000 volunteers. Given the large number of Chinese students who have chosen a Western…

This report is the third of a three-phase research study of teacher professional learning opportunities in the United States. In this third phase of the research, the authors conducted case studies of four professionally active states to get a deeper look at the policy frameworks that support professional development in those states. These…

The history of ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) arises in the late 1990s when the first formal procedures for quality assurance begun to stabilize on a national level. As a result of the European Pilot Projects in the field of external quality assurance during the nineties, participants felt the need for…

The objective of this study is to describe and map the current state of play of the Bologna Process in the nine countries of the Southern Mediterranean participating in the Tempus programme. For the last twenty years, the Tempus programme has supported the modernisation of higher education systems in countries neighbouring the EU by financing…

In her role with the School Administrators of Iowa leading Iowa's leadership grant from The Wallace Foundation, the author works with a coalition of individuals and groups striving to implement a cohesive leadership system for school leaders. Efforts to create a cohesive leadership system in Iowa for the past nine years have resulted in many…

The collection of student feedback is seen as a central strategy to monitor the quality and standards of teaching and learning in higher education institutions. The increasing use of technology to support face-to-face, blended and distance courses has led managers as well as practitioners to become increasingly concerned to identify appropriate…