External quality assurance in higher education: how can it address corruption and other malpractices?

Corruption and malpractices in higher education are today a major concern in nearly all higher education systems worldwide. It is a multifaceted phenomenon and has become particularly visible in the academic domain. This paper represents an exploration of the possible role that quality assurance can play in addressing corruption and malpractices. First, it briefly studies the factors that enhance the risk of corruption and malpractice in higher education. Second, it examines how quality assurance systems can potentially identify and prevent corruption in higher education. Third, it discusses organisational options that prevent corruption in the quality assurance procedure itself. In other words, how the quality assurance procedure should be built in order to lower the risk of becoming itself the object of unethical behaviour and corruption.     

Implementation of quality assurance standards in European higher education: does context matter?

The vast majority of studies concerning the implementation of quality assurance in higher education institutions have been conducted from a national perspective, with few cross-national studies. This study aimed to explore the implementation of quality assurance standards in Europe from a comparative perspective. A questionnaire based on Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area was developed to compare countries. The results indicate that higher education institutions mainly formulate their quality assurance systems according to national standards or based on their own needs. The main emphasis in quality assurance is on teaching and learning activities and curriculum development. The major contribution of the study lies in showing how different country settings affect the implementation of quality assurance standards through presenting the strengths and weaknesses for quality assurance implementation among several European countries.     

Quality assurance policies and practices in Scandinavian higher education systems: convergence or different paths?

Because there is close cooperation on quality assurance in the Scandinavian countries, one would expect there to be convergence of quality assurance policies and practices in Scandinavian higher education. Few studies have analysed these quality assurance policies and practices from a comparative viewpoint. Based on empirical evidence produced in connection with studies of recent quality reforms in Scandinavia and an approach based on linking diffusion and translation theories with institutionalist perspectives focusing on path dependency, the paper contributes to the current debate on Scandinavian quality assurance. The debate is compelling with regard to the Swedish case in particular, with its ‘one size fits all’ approach and exclusive focus on outcomes which has been heavily criticised by the higher education institutions and has turned out to be controversial from the European viewpoint.     

Teachers’ conceptions of quality and organisational values in higher education: compliance or enhancement?

Teachers are often assumed to have a negative attitude towards quality endeavours of their institutions and to hold defensive organisational values. However, there is little empirical research on this issue. This study focuses on teachers’ conceptions of quality, on their preferred organisational values and on the relationships between the two. A written questionnaire was presented to the teaching staff from 18 departments of universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands (N?=?266). It comprised 18 questions about teachers’ conceptions of quality, representing two quality scales: compliance and accountability and enhancement and improvement. A further 24 questions, related to organisational values, represent two scales that typify flexible organisations, and two that typify control-oriented organisations. The results reveal a neutral score on the compliance and accountability conceptions of quality and on the control-oriented organisational values, and a high score on enhancement and improvement and on the flexibility-oriented values. Both pairs appear to be moderately positively correlated. Despite the need for further qualitative research, it can be concluded that teachers perceive quality first and foremost as enhancement and improvement, rather than as compliance to external standards and accountability. These findings offer interesting perspectives for the further development of an internal quality culture in higher education.     

Vocational education and the binary higher education system in the Netherlands: higher education symbiosis or vocational education dichotomy?

The Netherlands has a binary higher education system in which academic education and higher professional education at EQF levels 5–8 co-exist. There is also secondary vocational education at EQF levels 1 up to 4. In this paper, I analyse policy documents resulting from the Bologna Process and argue that under neo-liberal conditions, higher professional education brings opportunities for both students and employers, but also creates a socio-economic tension in terms of employability. The gap between higher professional education and secondary vocational education adds to the formation of a labour market in which higher professional education graduates are prepared to an international labour market but employability pressure is being put on lower skilled employees, creating unequal employability opportunities for vocational education graduates.     

Women into science and engineering? Gendered participation in higher education STEM subjects

This paper considers gendered patterns of participation in post‐compulsory STEM education. It examines the trajectory of learning that takes students from A‐level qualifications, through undergraduate work and into employment or further study. It also uses a long‐term view to look at the best available evidence to monitor participation and attainment over an extended period of time. The findings suggest that almost three decades of initiatives to increase participation in STEM subjects have had little noticeable impact on the recruitment data and gendered patterns of participation persist in several subject areas. This is despite more women entering HE and little gender difference in the entry qualifications for STEM subjects. While more women are studying science, as broadly conceived, than ever before, recruitment to key areas, namely physics and engineering remains stagnant. However, for those women who do remain in the ‘science stream’ patterns of employment in graduate careers and further study appear relatively equitable.     

The Bologna Process and higher education in Mercosur: regionalization or Europeanization?

Over the past two decades regional agreements have become more significant in educational and training. This paper situates and analyses the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the Bologna Process and the Lisbon Strategy and explores their influence on the integration of higher education systems in Mercosur (the Southern Common Market of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela). Mercosur is still a customs union, and the project of integrating higher education is at an early stage. Lacking organically established regional bodies, coordination of integration in Mercosur has focused on summits and meetings of officials. However, in a context of unequal maturity in regional integration, there is emerging evidence that the EHEA project is influencing the reforms of national systems of higher education and even Mercosur’s model for a regional area of higher education. A nascent Europeanization of higher education systems in the Mercosur region is emerging, by-passing Mercosur’s regional structures. The formulation of policies has been permeated by policy transfer from Europe to national territories within Mercosur.     

Quality assurance of higher education in transition countries: Accreditation ‐ accountability and assessment

Abstract

One issue facing countries in transition concerns how to ensure quality for a broader and more diverse set of institutions. Quality assurance processes (i.e. accreditation, accountability and assessment) have particular relevance today as higher education undergoes dramatic changes in countries in transition, as the world becomes more internationalised, and as private higher education institutions increase in number and enrol increasing numbers of students. Three questions emerge. Do differences among transition countries relative to central control prior to independence explain the current set of quality assurance mechanisms? Has the growth of private higher education in transition countries affected how quality assurance is conceptualised? Have quality assurance mechanisms been affected by the opening of branch campuses in transition countries?     

On the margins or at the center? Distance education in higher education

Abstract

This reflection focuses on the position of distance education in today’s global higher education. Firstly, it identifies three types of convergence of distance and campus-based education – dual mode, add-on/blended, and full convergence – arguing that the last type has yet to be fully realized due to the complexities involved. It then critiques the interplay between the two, concluding that despite being influenced by campus-based instructional delivery in its early days, distance education is now influencing campus-based education. Implications of convergence are also discussed. Arguably, distance education universities should be proud of the increasing presence of distance education in campus-based universities and have confidence in maintaining their advantages. As for campus-based universities, a systems approach is needed if they intend to take advantage of this ‘unorthodox’ mode of education. Finally, it is suggested that both campus-based education and distance education are at the center of higher education because they are now equally conventional.     

Whose quality? Social actors in the interface of transnational and national higher education policy

The article analyzes the construction of national reactions to a transnational higher education policy from the point of view of the representation of social actors in policy documents. The data are provided by the so-called Bologna Process, particularly the development of comparable quality assurance systems, and Finnish responses to those demands. Who is represented as active and who as passive, as European policies are discursively translated into national policies? How are those ‘quality actors’ represented in the policy documents directed at a transnational audience (i.e. the Bologna Process communiqués, as well as national reports on its advancement) as opposed to documents directed at a national, in this case Finnish, audience (i.e. national policy formation documents)? What kinds of policy fields emerge as a result of different representations of actors? This article takes the Bologna Process as an example of the ‘glocalisation’ of higher education policy.     

Unfreezing higher education institutions? Understanding the introduction of quality management in teaching and learning in Germany

Quality management (QM) in teaching and learning has strongly “infected” the higher education sector and spread around the world. It has almost everywhere become an integral part of higher education reforms. While existing research on QM mainly focuses on the national level from a macro-perspective, its introduction at the institutional level is only rarely analyzed. The present article addresses this research gap. Coming from the perspective of organization studies, it examines the factors that were crucial for the introduction of QM at higher education institutions in Germany. As the introduction of QM can be considered to be a process of organizational change, the article refers to Kurt Lewin’s seminal concept of “unfreezing” organizations as a theoretical starting point. Methodologically, a mixed methods approach is applied by combining qualitative data derived from interviews with institutional quality managers and quantitative data gathered from a nationwide survey. The results show that the introduction of QM is initiated by either internal or external processes. Furthermore, some institutions follow a rather voluntary approach of unfreezing, while others show modes of forced unfreezing. Consequently, the way how QM was introduced has important implications for its implementation.     

Academic drift in Danish professional engineering education. Myth or reality? Opportunity or threat?

This article examines whether and, if so, to what extent academic drift can be said to have taken place in Danish professional engineering education. If the answer is affirmative, what were the driving forces behind it and what are the consequences – if any? First, a theoretical and conceptual framework for the discussion is introduced. This is followed by a case study of institutional change in higher education in Denmark, with a particular emphasis on two institutional examples, the two previously independent engineering colleges that recently merged with universities. The two examples are based on data gathered in interviews with teachers and management in these two engineering colleges (now both part of a university). In conclusion, based on the findings the questions posed in the title of this article are addressed and possible benefits and drawbacks of increased academisation of professional engineering education are discussed.     

Shared misunderstandings? Competing and conflicting meaning structures in quality assurance

This article shows how the professional discourse on quality assurance in higher education is building on latent meaning structures that can be competing with each other and even subvert the messages on the manifest level. Taking the case of the Austrian higher education system as an example and employing a reconstructive-interpretative approach rooted in social science hermeneutics, five different meaning patterns are presented: a consumer protection pattern, an educative pattern, an entrepreneurial pattern, a managerial pattern and a quality engineering pattern. By analysing and comparing these patterns, the study argues for paying more attention to latencies and implicit meanings that might be overlooked by focusing on the manifest level of the discourse, in order to not lose track of important contradictions and sources of potential conflict.     

The recontextualisation of ‘quality’ in Australian higher education

In the education policy arena, the notion of ‘quality'as a mechanism for increasing accountability to stakeholders has risen to prominence in the 1990s, as part of the micro‐economic reform agenda of many national governments. This study analyses the way in which policy makers in Australian higher education have recontextualised the notions of quality adopted in other countries to reconstruct a uniquely Australian version. Further, the study analyses how this recontextualisation continues from the ministerial level, through the Higher Education Council (HEC), and then the Committee for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (CQAHE), to the site of intended policy effect ‐‐ individual universities. A theoretical framework, in part offered by Stephen Ball's policy trajectory studies, is employed to examine the negotiation, resistance and even transformation of the original ministerial quality policy of 1991. A central contention is that the operation of the subsequent 3‐year cycle of quality reviews between 1993 and 1995 provides an example par excellence of a government strategy of ‘steering at a distance’.     

Why is quality in higher education not achieved? The view of academics

Quality assurance is currently an established activity in Europe, driven either by national quality assurance agencies or by institutions themselves. However, whether quality assurance is perceived as actually being capable of promoting quality is still a question open to discussion. Based on three different views on quality derived from the literature – quality as culture, as compliance and as consistency – the current article sheds light on this issue by identifying the main obstacles to quality as perceived by Portuguese academics. The analysis reveals that academics tend to see those obstacles as essentially related to the view of quality as culture and especially with its structural component, including the design and functioning of institutional governance and management. Although this may indeed correspond to the Portuguese higher education institutions’ reality, one must not forget that academics tend to have a poor knowledge about the structural frames that are embedded in governance and management. By highlighting obstacles related to different views on quality, this study may serve as a base to the development of more effective quality assurance mechanisms.     

Teacher training and ‘quality’ in higher education language teaching: strategies and options

The article focuses on the training of higher education language teachers from a quality enhancement perspective. After a brief discussion of the nature of quality in higher education, the article considers the implications which the expansion of language learning in higher education in Europe has for the teachers involve in designing and delivering language programmes. The main body of the article is then devoted to a discussion of the strategies and options in the field of the training of language teachers which emerged from reports on quality enhancement in higher education language studies prepared in 18 European countries. The reports were prepared within the framework of Thematic Network Project 2, organised by the European Language Council. The article concludes by highlighting the crucial role of teacher training in the ‘quality cycle’ with respect to both teaching and student learning.

L'article traite de la formation d'enseignants de langue travaillant dans l'enseignement supérieur d'une perspective axée sur l'amélioration de la qualité. Suite à une brève discussion de la notion de qualité dans l'enseignement supérieur, l'article examine les implications de l'expansion de l'apprentissage des langues dans l'enseignement supérieur en Europe pour les enseignants responsables de la conception et de la réalisation pédagogique de programmes de langue. La partie principale de l'article est alors consacrée à l'analyse des choix et stratégies dans le domaine de la formation d'enseignants de langues qui se sont dégagés de rapports sur l'amélioration de la qualité dans le domaine des langues dans l'enseignement supérieur dans 18 pays de l'Europe. Ces rapports furent préparés dans le cadre du Projet de Réseau Thématique 2, organisé par le Conseil Européen pour les Langues. En conclusion, l'article souligne le rôle crucial joué par la formation des enseignants par rapport à la qualité autant de l'enseignement que de l'apprentissage des langues par les étudiants.

El artículo trata de la formación de profesores de lengua que trabajan en la enseñanza superior, desde la perspectiva de la mejora de la calidad. Tras una breve discusión acerca de la noci?n de calidad en la enseñanza superior, el artículo examina las implicaciones de la expansión del aprendizaje de las lenguas en la enseñanza superior en Europa para los profesores responsables de la concepción y de la realización pedagógica de programas de lengua. La parte principal del artículo se consagra por tanto al análisis de las elecciones y estrategias en el campo de la formación de profesores de lenguas, tal como se desprenden de los informes sobre la mejora de la calidad en el campo de las lenguas en la enseñanza superior en 18 países de Europa. Estos informes fueron preparados en el marco del Proyecto de Red Temática 2, organizado por el Consejo Europeo para las Lenguas. En conclusión, el artículo subraya el papel crucial desempeñado por la formación de los profesores en la calidad tanto de la ensepanza como del aprendizaje de las lenguas por los estudiantes.

Der Artikel behandelt die Ausbildung von Sprachlehrkräften an Hochschulen aus der Sicht der Qualitätsverbesserung. Nach einer kurzen Erörterung der Spezifität der Qualität in der Hochschulbildung, befasst sich der Artikel mit den Konsequenzen des verstärkten Lehrens und Lernens von Sprachen an Hochschulen für die mit der Planung und Umsetzung von Sprachlehrprogrammen betrauten Lehrkräfte. Der Hauptteil des Artikels ist der Analyse von Strategien und Möglichkeiten im Bereich der Ausbildung von Sprachlehrkräften gewidmet, die aus 18 europäischen Länderberichten über Qualitätsverbesserung im Sprachenbereich an Hochschulen hervorgingen. Diese Berichte wurden innerhalb des vom Europäischen Sprachenrat organisierten Thematischen Netzwerkprojekts Sprachen II (TNP2) erstellt. Am Schluss des Artikels wird die entscheidende Rolle der Ausbildung der Sprachlehrkräfte für die Qualität des Lehrens und Lernens von Sprachen an Hochschulen hervorgehoben.     

Mimetic desire and intersubjectivity in disciplinary cultures: constraints or enablers to learning in higher education?

The interplay of the inner lives (intersubjectivity) of students and academics within a range of disciplinary cultural manifestations is a key element in the generation of student learning. This article suggests that research on student learning has yet to adequately articulate how this interplay occurs, suggesting that a focus on the influence of just one or two disciplinary cultural manifestations gives a partial image of how students become oriented toward or away from learning in higher education. Using a method that synthesizes the literature on organizational cultures, humanities cultural theory, cultural linguistic theory, and philosophical approaches to intersubjectivity, it identifies a framework for understanding the core conditions of learning within the disciplines that is complementary to psychological and phenomenological research on student learning. As an outcome of this exercise, this paper suggests that students' orientations are initiated within the intersubjective relationships that they encounter and that these relationships play out through the contradictions that exist between the full range of disciplinary manifestations. It closes by suggesting that how students interact with the paradoxes of the disciplinary environment is key to enabling them to manage the tension between their immediate subject study needs and broader learning patterns for their post-graduation lives.