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.     

The massification of higher education in the UK: Aspects of service quality

This article explores several aspects of service quality for the provision of higher education. Alongside the trend of the massification of higher education over the past two decades, higher education institutions are required to review quality across a range of outputs, besides teaching and learning. The study was undertaken within the undergraduate placement programme of a UK higher education institution and investigated aspects of service quality through students’ surveys conducted over a five-year period and staff questionnaires and interviews. The findings of the study point out that, amongst other factors, the increase in student numbers implies a deterioration of higher education service quality. Based on the findings, several areas that can potentially improve the quality of higher education services in modern universities are identified.     

高教全面质量管理刍议

把全面质量管理这一科学管理方法移植到高教质量管理中来,论述了高教质量的全面含义,阐述了高教全面质量管理的内容特征和基本原则,设计了高教全面质量管理的评估指标体系框架。     

Factors favouring or impeding building a stronger higher education system in the United Arab Emirates

The paper examines the inherent strengths and weaknesses of the higher education system in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Using a literature review, three elements were examined: its development and structure, quality, and research capacity. The findings reveal that the UAE’s higher education sector has witnessed remarkable growth since 1997, guided by the state’s policy commitment, and few restrictions on foreign universities opening branches in the UAE. This situation has led to substantial growth in the supply of higher education opportunities for the Emirati and expatriate population. Despite the UAE having achieved a high ranking for ‘quality indicators’ on the global level in the World Economic Forum’s Competitiveness Reports, the quality of graduates, education, and research engagement is still debatable. Significant efforts are needed to ensure that these critical issues, as well as the understudied expansion of higher education institutions, are being addressed to erase the misalignment with the UAE’s strategic goals.     

英国高等教育的特点及质量评估体系

本文介绍了英国高等院校的布局和高等教育的特点、学制体系和课程多样性,阐述了英国高等教育国际化特征及其生源组成、经费来源和教学科研质量评估体系。     

试论高等教育服务价格

高等教育服务价格是指高等教育的消费者消费或购买一定的高等教育服务所支付的全部资金的总和,包括国家支付的人均教育经费和个人所缴的费用。两部分价格的不同组合,构成了高等教育服务价格的三种不同类型,即国家全额支付型、个人全额支付型和国家与个人共同分担型。国家与个人共同分担型是一种合理且现实的调节方式。     

The impact of generation and socioeconomic status on the value of higher education in the UAE: A longitudinal study

This study explores the differences between student and parents’ value orientation for a college degree across a large sample in the UAE. The value of obtaining a higher education degree in the UAE is transgenerational. Salient benefits of a college degree can be categorized by economic, social and entrepreneurial factors and a model is set forth based on an intrinsic/extrinsic and self vs. other continuum. Education and income are related to valuing several educational outcomes. The most important factor identified across generations included both self-transcendence and self-enhancement values. From 2011–2015, the importance of higher education’s social benefits has increased.     

HEISQUAL: A modern approach to measure service quality in higher education institutions

Considering students as the key stakeholders in higher education institutions (HEIs), the present study identifies service quality (SQ) indicators from their perspectives and proposes a more comprehensive instrument for measuring SQ exclusively in HEIs. HEISQUAL covers the operational as well as technical aspects of SQ by following a holistic approach, which has largely been ignored in previous studies. The proposed instrument was subjected to different scale development tests where outcomes fully complied with the benchmark values and proposed seven SQ themes, namely teachers’ profile, curriculum, infrastructure and facilities, management and support staff, employment quality, safety and security, and students’ skills development.     

高等教育质量管理新进展:质量文化研究

高等教育质量已经成为高等教育领域的核心话题,各种高等教育质量管理程序和技术开始建立并推广,对保障高等教育质量起到了一定的作用。然而,欧洲的研究者提出,质量管理程序和技术最终不能解决质量的改进问题,而只有由下而上地建立高等教育质量文化,使追求和提升质量成为成员的自觉观念和行动,高等教育质量才能持续提升。围绕"质量文化"这一概念,对欧洲高等教育领域近年的质量文化研究进展进行考察,并从这些新进展中捕捉对中国高等教育质量管理的启示与意义。     

高等职业教育的规模发展与质量保证

一定的办学规模是发展高等教育的必要条件，学校和政府是保证高职教育质量提高的两个方面，建立市场化的质量评估机制，办出自己的特色，是提高高职教育质量的必然选择。     

The analytic hierarchy process of the decision-making factors of African students in obtaining higher education in the United Arab Emirates

The mobility of African students beyond national territories has become common worldwide. However, the underlying reasons motivating students to leave their countries of origin in pursuit of higher education in other developing nations and why these factors are important have not been fully explored. This study attempts to explore why and how African students travel to the United Arab Emirates for higher education. A push-pull factor theory of the international student’s choice of destination is developed to identify factors influencing the choices made by these students. The analytic hierarchy process is used to examine the relative importance of these factors. The findings of this quantitative study indicate that learning environment and geographic proximity are the two most important factors for African students, while other factors have a moderate impact. The findings contribute to a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the needs and choices of existing and potential students from this continent, with a view to applying a segmentation approach to attract these students.     

对高师体育素质教育的探索

通过分析高师体育与素质教育的关系,针对高师体育与素质教育不相适应的地方及高师学生鲜明的师范性特点,提出了高师体育贯彻素质教育的方法。     

以职业素养为导向的高职学生素质教育途径探析

职业素质是劳动者就业的基本条件,影响着学生就业和未来的发展。所以,加强高职生的职业素质教育是提高劳动者社会竞争力,保证高职院校就业率的关键所在。对高职生进行有效的职业素质教育,必须选择适当可行的教育途径,构建科学的职业素质教育体系,将职业素质教育贯穿于整个在校学习的全过程,落实在高职教育的各个方面。文章通过对职业素质的分析和加强高职学生职业素质的必要性出发,结合实际情况提出了培养实施学生职业素质的方式和培养途径。     

高等教育价值观视野下的高等教育质量

在关于高等教育质量的研究与实践中,一种社会本位的价值观长期以来起着主导作用,人们往往主要或只从社会需要的角度去讨论、认识、规定、评价高等教育质量。随着市场经济体制的建立,以学生为本、满足学生个人的需要正在成为我国高等教育实践的一种新的价值取向。从这种价值取向出发,有必要重新认识高等教育质量的含义及其特点。     

The Australian higher education quality assurance framework

The Australian government initiated a review of higher education in 2008. One of the outcomes of the review was the formation of a national regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), with responsibilities to: register all higher education providers, accredit the courses of the non self-accrediting providers, assure quality against externally set standards and reduce risk by monitoring institutional performance on various measures. One of the key changes in Australian higher education quality assurance is the shift from a ‘fitness-for-purpose’ approach to quality assurance to a compliance-driven approach using an externally developed set of standards monitored by the national regulator, which has legislated powers to place sanctions on universities and other providers for non-compliance. This article outlines the new framework introduced by the government and analyses its limitations in assuring and improving quality in core and support areas. It cautions universities against being dominated by TEQSA's compliance agenda. Rather, it encourages the development and maintenance of shared governance principles and strong internal quality improvement processes along with the establishment of an outcomes focus, which will stand the test of external compliance auditing while allowing the institution to pursue its own educational objectives. The article is based on the authors’ experience and reflection on external, improvement-led quality audits in Australia over the past decade compared with the present compliance-oriented audits now required for institutional registration and ongoing accreditation.     

高等教育质量与高水平大学建设

高等教育质量是一个具有时代性、相对性的具体概念。高等教育从精英教育向大众化教育蜕变,其种类与性质处在不断的演化之中,标准呈现多元化多样性。高等教育的发展与经济社会发展相适应,在这个大前提下,才能获得高质量的高等教育。创办高水平研究型大学,是深圳经济社会发展的迫切需要,是提高深圳高等教育质量的必然举措。     

论高等职业教育改革与服务功能

高等职业教育应牢固树立为地区经济建设和社会发展服务的办学思想。坚持以服务为宗旨、以就业为导向,不断深化教育教学改革。要进一步明确高等职业教育的培养目标,科学建构课程体系,合理选择课程内容,不断创新教育教学及人才培养模式,重视实践教学环节,加强实训基地建设,深化实践教学及考核方式改革。努力为学生的未来发展和就业服务,为经济社会发展服务。     

The need for context-sensitive measures of educational quality in transnational higher education

This paper argues that the current approach to educational quality formation in transnational higher education promotes educational imperialism, and that guidelines and practices should be altered to embrace context-sensitive measures of quality. The claims are sustained by findings from a study that investigated how academics understood and pursued educational quality in an Australian university programme delivered in partnership with a Chinese university in China. A key finding was that a home programme functioned as the single reference point for quality in the programme delivered in China. Quality in the China programme was sought through the imposition of practices and philosophies associated with the home programme, which required the suppression of local educational traditions. The paper points out that reliance on a home programme as the single measure of quality is encouraged by governing UNESCO/OECD guidelines on quality in cross-border provision.     

美国网络高等教育质量保障中的政府角色

美国是当今世界网络高等教育最发达的国家,其质量保障问题一直是政府和社会关注的热点。美国政府从颁布法律法令、审核认证机构、提供财政拨款等方面对网络高等教育的质量保障进行监督和引导,同时与高等院校合作开展全国范围的实证研究并取得了阶段性成就。美国网络高等教育质量保障中的政府角色定位准确、方法得当,既给予了高等院校充分的发展自主权,又保证了网络教育的质量,值得我国借鉴。     

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.