This article discusses the meanings of quality in the Humboldtian university ideal and in the Bologna process, especially related to issues of institutional autonomy, academic freedom and the integration of teaching and research. The article gives an overview of current practices associated with quality and quality assurance in Germany and Norway.…

Virtual schooling is a rapidly growing and, to many, an increasingly troubling phenomenon. In a decade, online education has grown from being a novelty act to an established mode of education, consisting of asynchronous, computer-mediated interaction between a teacher and students over the Internet. Although exact figures are hard to come by,…

Contributions on quality assurance in education often argue that a complementary and integrated relation between internal and external evaluation of schools would be advisable. This article sets out to investigate what role internal evaluation should--or could--fulfil in relation to external evaluation. It concludes that the arguments for an…

Ofsted's Annual Report for 2006-2007 revealed signs of continuing improvement in adult learning and skills provision. Inspection of further education (FE) colleges revealed that 17 were outstanding, and a further 44 good in relation to overall effectiveness. In this article, the author argues that despite these signs of continuing improvement,…

This article explores the role of voluntary quality assessments in higher education, underscoring their main features and potentialities, and showing that basic principles and guidelines can be customised in different countries or single institutions. The article extensively presents an assessment project developed at the University of Siena, the…

European tertiary education became an important topic of the main leaders of the world academia a decade ago, when 29 European countries voluntarily signed the Bologna Declaration of 1999. This intergovernmental European initiative of educational reform, known as the Bologna Process, defines a common framework for higher education systems, and…

England's National College for School Leadership (NCSL) is probably unique in the scale on which its key national programmes are offered. This paper focuses on two of these programmes--Leading from the Middle and Leadership Pathways--which use blended learning models to cater for the leadership development needs of "middle leaders"…

This paper argues for an alternative approach to quality assurance in New Zealand universities that locates evaluation not with external auditors but with members of the teaching team. In the process, aspects of network theories are introduced as the basis for an approach to quality assurance. From this, the concept of networks is extended to…

This paper examines Australian policy on quality for early childhood education and care (ECEC). It investigates the existing national quality assurance system, Quality Improvement and Accreditation System (QIAS) and its application in childcare centres. However, Australia's recently elected federal government has shown enormous interest in…

A framework is described to assist institutions in evaluating the extent to which activities described as "quality improvements" or "quality enhancements" are likely to directly improve the student experience. The framework classifies ways of improving the student experience into "coaching improvements",…

Implementation of patient safety initiatives can be costly in time and energy. Because of small volumes and limited resources, rural hospitals often are not included in nationally driven patient safety initiatives. This article describes the Tennessee Rural Hospital Patient Safety Demonstration project, whose goal was to strengthen capacity for…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the changes taking place when learning moves from a transmissive learning model to a collaborative and reflective learning model and proposes consequences for quality development. Design/methodology/approach: The paper summarises relevant research in the field of e-learning to outline the…

This article demonstrates the value of theoretical ex-ante evaluation of policy programs. We show how a specific policy might not achieve its objectives and illustrate the elements of the policy, which need improvement. These conclusions are based on a reconstruction and evaluation of the theory behind a policy program that aims to increase…

This article looks at policy for quality assurance and evaluation in Scotland, its history and more recent developments, and in particular, at the emphasis on school self-evaluation. It examines the history of the concept, its constituent elements and the role of the Inspectorate in establishing it. Further, the article discusses the Scottish…

The paper analyses quality assurance and evaluation (QAE) policy and activities in mandatory schooling at national level in Sweden. Two studies are reported: a textual analysis of national policy documents concerning QAE, and an interview study conducted with national policy brokers. Questions addressed are: What are the characteristics of Swedish…