Accreditation has become something of a hot topic in higher education. In Europe it has been described as a 'Licence to Kill'. The James Bond metaphor is particularly illustrative when reflecting on quality assurance challenges in higher education. Publications on this subject in recent years reveal that the array of issues associated with…

The paper attempts to develop an approach to implementation for a holistic model of quality in higher education. The methodology follows Senges model for implementing learning in organisations. According to Senge the real work of learning takes place within a "deep learning cycle". The generic nature of actions to set in motion the learning cycle…

The ascendancy of neoliberalism and the associated discourses of '[new public management', during the 1980s and 1990s has produced a fundamental shift in the way universities and other institutions of higher education have defined and justified their institutional existence. The traditional professional culture of open intellectual enquiry and…

The past few years have seen efforts in several countries and a wide range of disciplines to adopt and apply existing professional standards for guiding and judging evaluation services and/or develop new standards. Some of the efforts have drawn from the work and products of the North American Joint Committee on Standards for Educational…

In multinational corporations, new models of learning are developing. A particular model with direct applications for challenges facing distributed workforces is one that combines the strengths of formal and informal learning while focusing on participants' work-based tasks. An operationalisation of this model in the context of the ongoing…

Barring the devout vegetarian, most people will not refuse a sizzling steak, especially when the stomach is empty. Even in fairly well developed economies, an education deficit is there. Why should countries then be hesitant or skeptical about transnational education delivered to their doors? Could it be that there are just too many bones in this…

The purpose of this study was to examine the current status of e-Learning in Korean higher education and find ways to encourage the further use and development of e-Learning systems that aim to enhance Korea's academic competitiveness. A total of 201 universities in Korea (27 national and public, 163 private, and 11 national universities of…

This booklet is designed to help prospective students, counselors, public agencies, and institutions better understand distance education accreditation and how the accreditation procedures of the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) Accrediting Commission work. It describes distance education and the accreditation process for distance…

The Council for Higher Education Accreditation "Presidential Guidelines Series" was developed during 2006-2007 as means to further engage presidents in the work of accreditation and to offer tools for presidential leadership in this important area. Six individual Guidelines were issued, each addressing a vital dimension of the president…

In this interview Charles Henry, publisher of the Rice University Press (RUP), discusses RUP's rebirth as a fully digital university press. Henry addresses the circumstances that led to this decision, and he further outlines the RUP business model whereby the press will publish its own titles--both digitally and in print-on-demand--while…

Because learning and instruction are increasingly competence-based, the call for assessment methods to adequately determine competence is growing. Using just one single assessment method is not sufficient to determine competence acquisition. This article argues for Competence Assessment Programmes (CAPs), consisting of a combination of different…

This paper describes how Singapore attempts to balance the need for quality assurance and the need for educational diversity and innovation. The Singapore experience shows that this is a delicate balance. On the one hand, to promote diversity and innovation, the government attempts to decentralise its power to the schools. On the other hand, for…

This paper discusses the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), its creation, its guidelines, and its inherently innovative potential. It looks closely at the theoretical proposals, the innovative regulations and institutional practices in the process of academic change that relate to teaching, research and management. It also describes the…

This report is a product of an European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) Workshop "Assessing educational quality: Knowledge production and the role of experts" hosted by the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (NOKUT) in Oslo in February, 2008. The workshop gathered representatives from higher…

Purpose: The paper describes the purpose of and strategies for conducting post-occupancy evaluations (POEs) as a method for assessing school building performance. Set within the larger context of global efforts to develop and apply common indicators of school building quality, the authors describe research conducted within the newest generation of…