Quality In Higher Education

The concept of quality in higher education is by no means a new one. By one set of definitions or another, colleges and universities throughout the world have always held the pursuit of excellence as their primary goal. Why then has the quality approach, developed and popularized in industry, and how increasingly applied in health care and government, receiving so much attention in higher education at this moment? What does this perspective add to the approaches to excellence with which they have long embraced?These are the two primary questions that this book seeks to address. Chapters and contributors include: "The New Productivity" by Peter F. Drucker; "World War n and the Quality Movement" by J. M. Juran; "The Quality Approach to Higher Education: Context of Concepts for Change" by Brent Ruben; "The Big Questions in Higher Education Today" by L. Edwin Coate; "An American Approach to Quality" by Marilyn R. Zuckerman and Lewis J. Hatala; "Quality hi Higher Education: Critical Issues in Definition and Assessment" by Brent Ruben; and "Ten Areas for Future Research in Total Quality Management" by A. Blanton Godfrey. The volume is graced with an opening essay by Francis L. Lawrence, president of Rutgers University.Higher education is in the public spotlight today due to the many challenges it now faces: rising tuition costs; frustration about a tight job market for graduates; calls for increased faculty productivity; concerns about political correctness; and criticisms regarding the use of grant and research funds, among others. Quality in Higher Education is a particularly timely book that will greatly benefit educators, university administrators, students, and sociologists, and all those who are interested in higher education today.

By bringing together leading experts on quality assurance in higher education from seven countries (from Europe, the USA and South Africa), this volume intends to go several steps further than most publications on the same subject. Containing comprehensive discussion of the most relevant trends in quality assurance regulation, translation and transformation, researchers and policy makers will find an engaged, academic reflection on how quality assurance is embedded in higher education and in a dynamic way to assess its impacts and potential improvements.

Many countries now employ national evaluation systems to demonstrate publicly that universities provide a quality education. However, the current processes of quality evaluation are often detached from the practices of teaching and learning. In particular, those who teach and those who learn still have to be won over to such audit processes.This book argues that it is time for the higher education sector to concern itself with the human dimension so as to develop both academic professionalism and students’ commitment to their learning. Based on five completed research projects, which explore academics’ and students’ experiences and their views of quality evaluation, the book argues that developing the intrinsic values of teaching and learning held by academics and students is key to achieving high quality education.In this book, the author critically reviews the four most frequently used terms related to current quality evaluation: ‘fitness for purpose’, ‘value for money’, ‘student satisfaction’ and ‘students-as-customers’, and argues for a motivationally intelligent quality approach, emphasising the moral dimension and the intrinsic values of academics and students. The author also outlines an improved quality evaluation system that encourages and increases academics’ and students’ commitment to teaching and learning.

Whilst many studies have explored how quality in higher education is conceptualised in the Global North, less attention has been paid to quality in higher education in Africa and the Global South. This book uses the human development and capabilities approach to demonstrate how quality in teaching and learning contributes to a range of benefits, such as improved wellbeing, economic outcomes, political engagement, and human capital formation amongst graduates. The book interrogates the various dimensions of quality as well as factors that impact on the realisation of quality in universities and society at large. Recognising that measures of quality are context and stakeholder specific, the book uses the Zimbabwean context as a Global South case study. It evaluates how quality is conceptualised and operationalised in Zimbabwean universities, and how that impacts on teaching and learning policy and practice. The book also demonstrates the need for economic resources for individuals and universities, and emphasises the importance of a social and educational environment conducive to critical learning, and post-university opportunities. This book will be of interest to researchers across Education, African and Development Studies, as well as to policymakers and practitioners with an interest in quality assurance and the promotion of teaching and learning in universities in the Global South.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of quality assurance in Vietnamese higher education under the centralised management of the government after 15 years of development. By implementing quality assurance and accreditation mechanisms, the Vietnamese government expected to be able to control and improve the quality of the higher education system. The editors and contributors therefore examine and analyse policies and practices related to the establishment and development of Vietnam's quality assurance system. Amongst other things, the chapters investigate drivers of quality assurance, stakeholders engaged in quality assurance and the future of quality assurance in Vietnamese higher education in benchmarking with other quality assurance systems in the region and across the world. This book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of Vietnamese higher education, as well as quality assurance in higher education more generally, but particularly in developing nations.

Although initially utilized in business and industrial environments, quality management systems can be adapted into higher education to assess and improve an institution’s standards. These strategies are now playing a vital role in educational areas such as teaching, learning, and institutional-level practices. However, quality management tools and models must be adapted to fit with the culture of higher education. Quality Management Implementation in Higher Education: Practices, Models, and Case Studies is a pivotal reference source that explores the challenges and solutions of designing quality management models in the current educational culture. Featuring research on topics such as Lean Six Sigma, distance education, and student supervision, this book is ideally designed for school board members, administrators, deans, policymakers, stakeholders, professors, graduate students, education professionals, and researchers seeking current research on the applications and success factors of quality management systems in various facets of higher education.

One of the key elements in determining the socio-economic significance of education is quality. Quality management plays an integral role in higher education by ensuring that quality benchmarks are being met, thereby attributing to its prestige, increased enrollment, and student success. Quality management policies must be successfully implemented for the institution to thrive. With quality management still in the growing stage, research is needed regarding the applications, challenges, and benefits of these policies within advanced academics. Quality Management Principles and Policies in Higher Education provides emerging research exploring the theoretical aspects of quality management policies and applications within the educational field. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as faculty involvement, administration practices, and critical success factors, this book is ideally designed for educators, administrators, educational consultants, researchers, policymakers, stakeholders, deans, provosts, chancellors, academicians, and students seeking current research on successfully implementing quality management systems in teaching, learning, and administrative processes.

The Rise of Quality Assurance in Asian Higher Education provides information on the well researched quality assurance frameworks, processes, standards, and internal and external monitoring that have taken place around the globe. However, in Asia, where higher education has witnessed rapid growth, and is also contributing significantly to international education which is benefited by many developed countries, this data has not been readily available. In recent years, governments in Asia have made significant investment with an aim of creating education hubs to ensure that higher education is internationally competitive. This book examines the developments in higher education quality assurance in eleven Asian countries, providing systematic insights into national quality assurance arrangements and also examining the different approaches governments in Asia have implemented based on social and economic contexts. Includes chapters from eleven countries that examine quality assurance arrangements Explores untold case studies of countries, such as Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, India, and others Examines higher education context, quality assurance arrangements, effectiveness, challenges, and international quality assurance in Asia Offers contributions from leading scholars and practitioners who are working in higher education in Asia Provides engagement for research students