Scenarios of quality assurance of stakeholder relationships in Finnish higher education institutions

Although the role and significance of the external stakeholders of higher education institutions has grown in recent years, quality assurance of stakeholder relationships remains a new phenomenon in the management practices of higher education institutions and in higher education research. Based on interviews and expert panel data, this article analyses the internal and external stakeholders’ perceptions of scenarios of the quality assurance of stakeholder relationships in Finnish higher education institutions. It especially focuses on exploring how institutions can balance internal and external stakeholders’ perspectives with regard to quality assurance. The results show that an essential challenge for Finnish higher education institutions is to develop flexible quality assurance practices capable of balancing the academic goals of the institutions and the needs of the external stakeholders. This also requires seeking balance between the centralised coordination and the differentiated practices of disciplines and academic units inside institutions.     

Revisiting perceived service quality in higher education: uncovering service quality dimensions for postgraduate students

ABSTRACT

Perceived service quality in higher education and its antecedents have been one of the significant issues worldwide. Despite being studied over decades, service quality (SQ) remains a crucial area of research due to its dynamic and contextual nature, among other reasons. The main research objective is to uncover the dimensions constituting SQ from the perspectives of postgraduate students and university staff to provide a better understanding of key elements of the SQ. The current research incorporated relevant theories and concepts from both marketing and higher education literature and employed in-depth interviews with students and staff for data collection. Interviewees’ insights were analyzed using content analysis. A conceptual model is developed to explain the suggested relationship among study variables. Based on qualitative data analysis, four dimensions of SQ emerged, namely academic services, academic facilities, administrative services, and students’ service role. Additionally, performance and employee orientation are found to affect SQ. Research findings can guide education managers and academicians to consider students’ service role as an integral dimension of SQ and find new ways to improve it.     

提升成人高校函授教学质量的探索

我国成人高校函授教育为国家经济建设和社会发展作出了较大的贡献。近年来,成人高校函授教育质量在社会上评价不高。主要表现在重招生、轻管理、考风、考纪令人担忧、教师的教学方法和手段陈旧,师德师风、科研水平有待提高。为进一步提高成人高校函授教学的质量,必须积极探讨成人教育规律,运用现代教学方法和手段,加强教学管理,重视师资队伍建设。     

加强作者队伍建设提高学报学术质量--关于提升地方高校理科学报学术质量的思考

提高高校理科学报学术水平的根本途径在于加强作者队伍建设。加强地方高校理科学报的作者队伍建设要从自身实际情况出发，抓好以下几个主要方面：发现学术新秀，指导年轻作者写好论文，跟踪各学科科研热点，依靠本校科研优势创办品牌栏目。     

One or multiple paths to quality assurance of higher education institutions in the United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven autonomous emirates that follow different economic models. There is a process for quality assurance at the federal level, however, each emirate takes its own approach to assure the quality of its institutions. This has resulted in different procedures and varying levels of oversight and scrutiny of quality. Since the majority of higher education providers in the UAE are market-driven, this poses the challenge of maintaining the quality of education in those institutions. This study explores how well quality assurance systems support the quality of commercial higher education institutions using two research methods: semi-structured interviews with 38 stakeholders to investigate their perceptions of the quality assurance processes in the UAE; and focus group discussions with 161 students to collect their views of the quality of education in the commercialised institutions. The research confirms earlier findings that quality of education is a function of quality assurance processes.     

高等教育服务质量模糊综合评价法初探

模糊综合评价是一种新的高等教育服务质量评价方法,具有多元性、差异性、全面性、发展性、模糊性等特征。它将定性和定量评价、过程评价和结果评价结合起来,体现了现代高等教育质量评价的时代需要,是对已有的高等教育质量评价的一种超越,对提高高等教育质量具有重要的现实意义。     

高等学校人才培养全面质量管理探析

高等学校人才培养质量是高等教育大众化能否顺利实现的关键。高等学校实施全面质量管理 (TQM)是完全可行的。高校人才培养 TQM思想包括 :人才培养质量始终贯穿于人才培养的全过程 ;教育质量不仅是教学质量 ,而且包括人才培养质量有关的所有工作质量 ;全体教职员工都参与质量管理 ;TQM采取的是多种多样的质量管理方法。TQM的特色反映在“事前管理 ,防患于未然”。 TQM体系是整个学校管理体系的中心环节。     

Internationalising higher education: comparing the challenges of different higher education institutions in Malaysia

Internationalisation of higher education in Malaysia is seen as a means for improving and empowering higher education so that the higher education institutions in the country can become comparable to the best in the world. While the government has spelt out the directions as well as some of the targets for internationalisation, higher education institutions in the country have been internationalising for different reasons and with different levels of priority and intensity. Public universities, especially the older ones, have been engaged in internationalisation as part of their academic growth and development. Concurrently, a variety of private institutions of higher learning has evolved since the opening up of private higher education from the 1980s. These include private universities that have been established by large corporations, smaller private colleges that have been elevated to the status of degree-conferring institutions as well as branch campuses of foreign universities. The objective of this paper is to examine the different concepts and challenges of internationalisation faced by the different types of higher education institutions in the country, using the case study approach. It was found that in each of these cases, the concept of internationalisation and the challenges faced are different, although funding is raised as a problem in three of the four cases. These different challenges imply that current policies may have to be fine-tuned in order to address the different needs of these institutions in their respective efforts to internationalise.     

A general theory of learning and teaching and a related comprehensive set of performance indicators for higher education institutions

In contemporary knowledge societies, performance indicators are an indispensable element of sustainable quality management and enhancement through monitoring and evaluating quality performance of higher education institutions. It is argued that learning and teaching quality in higher education should be approached in a holistic way, namely across the four subdomains of learning and teaching environment, teaching processes, learning processes and learning outcomes and their assessment. performance indicators related to these areas must align with a synoptic understanding of learning and teaching comprising behavioural, information processing, cognitive, social (constructivism) and humanistic theories of learning. Selected issues from a comprehensive set of about 280 performance indicators for learning and teaching are presented and contextualised. The indicators set resulted and emerged from critical reflection of research literature and explorative surveys of various informed and engaged stakeholders, from 14 public European universities, and a general theory of learning and teaching.     

高等教育质量研究——管理的视角

质量是评价高等教育水平的尺度,管理是维持和改进高等教育质量的方法,质量管理代表了人们通过管理提升高等教育质量的努力。作为一个介于主观与客观、抽象与具体之间的特殊范畴,高等教育质量不同于企业领域的产品质量或服务质量,高等教育质量管理也不同于企业领域的全面质量管理。在普遍重视质量的新时代,质量管理绝不只是高等教育管理的时尚,而是高等教育发展的新希望,高等教育领域必须加强对于质量管理的研究,并积极付诸实践。     

高等教育成本的计量探讨

高校教育成本的测算因为交费上大学而成为全社会关注的问题,成本的计量也日益成为高校教育成本研究的难题,教育改革和发展实践对教育成本的数据信息和教育成本的核算也提出了更加迫切的要求。可以说,成本意识已成为现代成本管理中一个最为基本的立足点。现代成本意识意味着学校管理人员对成本管理和控制有足够的重视,因此将降低成本从战略布局的高度加以定位,确立具有长期发展观的“战略性成本意识”,这是一个立足于经济社会高等学校的根本。     

论高等学校定位

高等学校定位 ,包括高等学校在整个社会大系统中的定位 ,一所学校在整个高等教育系统中的定位 ,学校内部各要素在学校发展中的定位三个层面。当前应重点研究的是高等学校在高等教育系统中的定位 ,其实质是高等教育系统的分层。在对高等学校进行定位时 ,应综合考虑社会发展的需求、相关学校的状况以及自身具备的优势等各方面的因素 ,展其所长 ,要有大视野、大智慧和大手笔     

高校扩招与质量控制 --从教育评估的角度思考

我国高校连续几年的大规模扩招，引起了社会的极大关注，关注的焦点主要是如何保证人才培养的质量。应建立高等教育质量评估体系来加强质量监控，以确保扩招后高等教育的质量。     

高等职业教育院校中的成人教育发展探讨

高等职业教育院校中的成人教育具有服务范围广泛、办学形式多元、教学内容务实等特点,决定了高等职业成人教育必须不断创新创优,继续提升办学实力,加强校政、校企、校校合作与交流,为社会培养更多具有创新能力的技能型人才,服务经济社会发展。     

高校图书馆在创新教育中的地位及服务措施

高校图书馆在创新教育中有十分重要的地位，应积极为创新教育服务，应从营造创新氛围，加强导读，开展创新教育讲座，提供高效率高质量的信息服务等方面入手。     

The potential of student narratives to enhance quality in higher education

University policies are increasingly developed with reference to students’ learning experiences, with a focus on the concept of the ‘student voice’. Yet the ‘student voice’ is difficult to define and emphasis is often placed on numerical performance indicators. A diverse student population has wide-ranging educational experiences, which may not be easily captured within the broad categories provided by traditional survey tools, which can drown out the rich, varied and gradual processes of individual development. There is no single tool that can be used to measure students’ experiences. This paper draws on findings from four narrative inquiry studies, carried out in the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, to illustrate how a narrative approach could be used to complement performance indicators. This provides a richer context for educators’ understanding of students’ experiences and for supporting and setting institutional agendas.     

论现代高等教育的品质提升

随着知识经济的发展 ,提升高等教育的内在品质是现代高等教育发展的历史契机。本文从高等教育中的培养目标设置、通识教育问题和教学改革等三个方面对现代高等教育的品质提升做具体讨论     

The idea of quality in higher education: a conceptual approach

The paper suggests that the idea of quality in higher education is ideologically constructed and conducted. In a spiral of mutual reinforcements, quality regimes naturalise experience, while the theories of that practice legitimise the naturalness of ‘quality’. I shall suggest that quality regimes provide too narrow readings of higher education. The central concepts, which I propose to use – discourse and power – emphasise the connectedness of ideology and quality in higher education. In particular, I suggest that the ideological character of the idea of quality in higher education is evident in discourses – which themselves are interlinked in networks. These discourses and networks are backed up by power and this helps to sustain their ideological character. Thus, this paper attempts two things: to outline a conceptual framework concerning the ideological character of the idea of quality in higher education and to draw attention to the organisation of that ideological formation.     

高等学校定位问题辨析

高等学校的定位问题是高等教育在特定历史阶段产生的问题,主要表现为趋同和攀升。适度的趋同和攀升对于培育高等教育市场和提高高校办学效率具有一定的积极作用,但问题的负面影响不可小视。政府应当采取以经济手段为主的宏观调控措施,改革政府与高校的隶属关系, 引导高校科学定位。