Making The Most Of Accreditation Balancing The National And International Developments In Higher Education

The Would Over Quality Assurance Is An Evolving Mechanism. This Book Is An Attempt To Record Those Developments.

This book is the outcome of the efforts of many professionals working both in academia and industry who have contributed to the proceedings of the International Conference on Quality Management Practices for Organizational Excellence . Organizational Excellence is a final product composed of two basic elements alloyed prudently by the members/stakeholders of an organization. These two basic elements are Strategy and Culture . When we talk of quality management practices, we have to pursue quality as a strategy and also quality as a culture . Quality as strategy is a conscious and deliberate search for a plan of action that will develop an organization's distinctive competence and compound it. Quality as culture is the amalgamation of behavior patterns of all the stakeholders in terms of beliefs, values, attitudes etc. In other words, quality management is the epicenter of the competitive organizations of the future in which strategy is the scientific pursuits and culture is the artistic artifacts. Numerous authors have put forth their logical thoughts, have articulated their concepts and have validated their hypothesis relating to quality management. The papers, which have found place in this book aim at creating values of quality management practices.

Expansion and privatization have created new concerns over the quality of education throughout the Asia/Pacific region. This volume provides a framework to examine these challenges in the region and beyond.

Higher education systems throughout the world in developed and developing countries are undergoing diverse types of changes that are often interrelated. One of these changes is the considerable growth in the private provision of higher education over the last decade, in particular within developing countries. The IIEP Policy Forum identified the most recent trends and findings of trade in higher education and by discussing the international driving forces that push national governments to establish quality assurance systems for their higher education institutions and programmes.

Despite strong recent economic growth, Sub-Saharan Africa has levels of economic transformation, poverty reduction, and skill development far below those of other regions. Smart investments in developing skills—aligned with the policy goals of productivity growth, inclusion, and adaptability—can help to accelerate the region’s economic transformation in the 21st century. Sub-Saharan Africa’s growing working-age population presents a major opportunity to increase shared prosperity. Countries in the region have invested heavily in building skills; public expenditure on education increased sevenfold over the past 30 years, and more children are in school today than ever before. Yet, systems for building skills in this population have fallen short, and these shortcomings significantly impede economic prospects. In half of the countries, fewer than two in every three children complete primary school; even fewer reach and complete higher levels of education. Learning outcomes have been persistently poor, leading to substantial gaps in basic cognitive skills—literacy and numeracy—among children, young people, and adults. The literacy rate of the adult population is below 50 percent in many countries; functional literacy and numeracy rates are even lower. Systemwide change is required to achieve significant progress. Multiple agencies at the central and local levels are involved in skills development strategies, making skills “everyone’s problem but no one’s responsibility.†? Policies and reforms need to build capacity for evidence-based policies and create incentives to align the behaviors of all stakeholders with the pursuit of national skills development goals. The Skills Balancing Act in Sub-Saharan Africa: Investing in Skills for Productivity, Inclusivity, and Adaptability lays out evidence to inform the policy choices that countries will make in skill investments. Each chapter addresses a set of specific questions, drawing on original analysis and synthesis of existing studies to explore key areas: • How the skills appropriate to each stage of the life cycle are acquired and what market and institutional failures affect skills formation • What systems are needed for individuals to access these skills, including family investments, private sector institutions, schools, and other public programs • How those systems can be strengthened • How the most vulnerable individuals—those who fall outside the standard systems and have missed critical building blocks in skills acquisition—can be supported. Countries will face trade-offs—often stark ones—that will have distributional impacts and a bearing on their development path. Committed leaders, reform coalitions, and well-coordinated policies are essential for taking on the skills balancing act in Sub-Saharan Africa.