The distinction between academic standards and quality: implications for transnational higher education

Although the conceptual distinction between academic standards and the quality of learning opportunities is fundamental to an understanding of the role of quality assurance in higher education, the distinction, and its implications, have not always been well understood in the case of transnational higher education. This paper explores both the source of academic standards and the criteria by which the quality of learning opportunities can be judged. It is argued that the distinction is of particular importance in the context of transnational education, because whilst judgements about quality may legitimately be susceptible to a degree of cultural influence, the same is not true of judgements about academic standards. It is suggested that a lack of attention to the logical distinction between standards and quality has hampered efforts by regulatory régimes around the world to develop coherent policies with respect to hosting transnational higher education provision.     

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.     

Three in-course assessment reforms to improve higher education learning outcomes

A current international concern is that, for too large a proportion of graduates, their higher order cognitive and practical capabilities are below acceptable levels. The constituent courses of academic programmes are the most logical sites for developing these capabilities. Contributing to patchy attainment are deficiencies in three particular aspects of assessment practice: the design and specifications of many assessment tasks; the minimum requirements for awarding a passing grade in a course and granting credit towards the degree; and the accumulation of points derived from quizzes, assessments or activities completed during the teaching period. Rethinking and reforming these would lead to improvements for significant sub-populations of students. Pursuing such a goal would also have significant positive implications for academic teachers, but be contingent on favourable contextual settings including departmental and institutional priorities.     

Professionalism,profession and quality assurance practitioners in external quality assurance agencies in higher education

This article seeks to spark a dialectic discussion on the establishment of a set of professional competencies for quality assurance practitioners who serve in external quality assurance agencies in higher education. Such a need is identified due to the shortage of relevant and sufficient coverage in the quality assurance literature. To substantiate the need, the concepts of professionalism and profession, and how these concepts are linked to the quality assurance in higher education sector, are carefully examined through a desk-top research study. References are drawn from the experiences in several other occupations. The result reveals that the development of the essential competencies for external quality assurance practitioners in higher education is valuable and essential and it will be useful for the practitioners to transform themselves into a profession in the long run.     

The contradictory managerialism of university quality assurance

This paper investigates how Australian universities are being disciplined to behave as commercial enterprises by the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA). The manual produced by AUQA, for the purpose of conducting audits of Australian universities, is analysed. I use an analytical framework that provides a means by which a text from the ‘manual’ genre can be analysed with respect to social and political contexts, using Critical Discourse Analysis. I analyse changes in the language used in subsequent editions of the manual, drawing inferences about how the AUQA manual constructs universities to behave as particular kinds of business entities. Depictions of the globalised and virtualised university are silenced in the texts. Contrary to the rhetoric of the university being a flexible, globalised enterprise, I find that universities are constructed as localised businesses appearing to be independent of direct government control but nevertheless constrained in the scope of their operation.     

高等教育质量保证机制的国际比较

高等教育大众化在一些发达国家已成为现实，高等教育质量保证机制是确保大众化高等教育健康发展的必要途径。某些发达国家的高等教育保证机制主要有政府主导型、民间中介组织主导型和中介机构与院校的内部质量保证机制相结合型三种模式，几种模式各有利弊。我国建立高等教育质量保证机制对此应加以借鉴。     

The contribution of professional accreditation to quality assurance in higher education

This article examines the extent to which the professional accreditation of professional higher education programmes can complement other quality assurance endeavours being carried out. An analysis of a sample of professional accreditation reports for pharmacy education programmes in Ireland provides insight into the priorities of the regulatory professional body with regard to preparation for the profession. The results show that the reports address issues that are of relevance for the higher education institutions’ provision of quality programmes and for their quality assurance. The article also considers the extent to which the reports hold institutions accountable against the professional standards, while also acknowledging the professional responsibility of institution staff. Catering for both of these logics is necessary so that professional accreditation can contribute effectively as a mechanism for quality assurance, including enhancement, in the institution.     

The Role of the Learning Community in the Development of Discipline Knowledge and Generic Graduate Outcomes

In this paper we describe a study of learning outcomes at a research-intensive Australian university. Three graduate outcome variables (discipline knowledge and skills, communication and problem solving, and ethical and social sensitivity) are analysed separately using OLS regression and comparisons are made of the patterns of unique contributions from four independent variables (the CEQ Good Teaching and Learning Communities Scales, and two new, independent, scales for measuring Teaching and Program Quality). Further comparisons of these patterns are made across the Schools of the university. Results support the view that teaching and program quality are not the only important determinants of students’ learning outcomes. It is concluded that, whilst it continues to be appropriate for universities to be concerned with the quality of their teaching and programs, the interactive, social and collaborative aspects of students’ learning experiences, captured in the notion of the Learning Community, are also very important determinants of graduate outcomes, and so should be included in the focus of attempts at enhancing the quality of student learning.     

我国高等教育质量保证模式的建构策略

我国现有的以政府控制为显著特征的高等教育质量保证模式,在实际运行中产生了理论和实践上的诸多问题,改革势在必行。应逐步实行市场化策略,培育与建立评估市场。政府应变“行政管理”为“政策调控”,变“统包统揽”为“多边共识”,高校应从他律走向自律,社会则应从缺席到参与。     

A strategic quality assurance framework in an African higher education context

This study is based on a pragmatist analysis of selected international accounts on quality assurance in higher education. A pragmatist perspective was used to conceptualise a logical internal quality assurance model to embed and support the alignment of graduate competencies in curriculum and assessment of Ghanaian polytechnics. Through focus group and in-depth interviews, the framework was evaluated by internal stakeholders including lecturers, students and administrators of the polytechnics. It was found that from a pragmatist perspective, quality assurance concepts and practices in higher education reported in the international literature could be used to design a context-specific quality assurance framework for higher education systems in Africa but there will be challenges with implementation of such a framework. The challenges found include quality culture and financial resources. Nonetheless, it was noted that effective planning and stakeholder commitment can surmount the challenges to ensure effective implementation of the framework to enhance quality.     

Quality assurance for public higher education: context,strategies and challenges in Kenya

Quality assurance (QA) mechanisms used to be highly dependent on national administrative traditions but nowadays there is a convergence of mechanisms. Compared to more developed higher education (HE) systems in the world, QA systems in Africa are still at an infant stage and thus confronted by many challenges. The purpose of this article is to present some of the findings derived from a study analysing the crucial issues and unique challenges facing Kenya's public HE as it struggles to develop QA mechanisms. Using purposive sampling, the researcher chose two public universities who indicated their willingness to participate and a national QA Agency (QAA). The study was done through in-depth interviews and a review of historical materials and records. Overall, respondents strongly emphasised the need for Kenyan universities to have compulsory and effective external and internal QA mechanisms. They indicated that the trends facing HE make it necessary for HE in Kenya to review their traditional QA structures and to create new systems of external QA. The numerous comments in this research indicate deficiency not only in the QAA focus and work but also in the internal QA frameworks within public universities.     

高校内部质量保证工作:专业培养计划的设计

论述本科和研究生专业培养计划的设计总则,精选外国高校在设计方面的范例,说明以学习产出为主线的专业培养计划的基本内容;提出以学生为本,全面贯彻知识、能力、人格教育的新型专业培养计划的设计原则。     

高等教育质量的社会保障:特点、途径和实现条件

政府、社会和高校分别代表着高等教育运行过程中的三种基本力量,也是高等教育质量保障的三大基本主体。相对于政府和高校的质量保障,社会的质量保障主要通过市场经济引导、社会舆论监督、社会中介组织评价等途径来实现。要充分发挥社会力量在高等教育质量保障中的作用,政府的放权与高校的自治是前提,市场的完善与文化的先进是关键,社会力量的整合与引导是手段。     

加拿大高校学生学习成果评估的内容、方法及启示

作为全球第二个实现高等教育普及化的高等教育强国,加拿大高校学生学习成果评估体系富有特色:在评估内容方面,构建起了高等教育系统、院校以及学科(专业)等不同层面的学生学习成果体系;在评估方法方面,形成了由标准化测试、评价量规、表现性评估以及问卷调查等四种类型构成的多元化学生学习成果评估方法体系。其对我国的启示是:构建和完善高校学生学习成果评估的内容体系,为学生学习成果评估奠定共识基础;开发多元化的学生学习成果评估方法与工具,提高评估活动的科学性;加强以结果为导向的评估制度建设,促使学习成果评估常态化。     

'Quality' in the Bologna Process: from 'competitive edge' to quality assurance techniques

The theoretical premise of this article is that policy is constructed and presented discursively. The Bologna process presents us with an example of such a policy construction process where the quality policy goals are set jointly in transnational settings, requiring different kinds of negotiations and discursive strategies. Discourse analysis of policy texts can be useful in tracing policy changes and describing them, but also in explaining and understanding some of the developments that lead up to the implementation of the policies and the (political) views which are embedded in the debates. In this article, some discourse analytical methods are used to analyse the potential meanings of ‘quality’ at the European and national level of the Bologna process. The linguistic analysis focuses on the different meanings of ‘quality’ and the value assumptions attached to it from the point of view of word choice, metaphors and argumentation strategies. The data used are the official declarations and communiqués of the Bologna process; the central background reports of the process; and brief national follow‐up reports prepared for the Berlin meeting of 2003 from Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands.     

自主学习质量控制要素探析

在现代远程教育中，影响自主学习质量的要素包括学习观念、学生的知识基础和社会背景、办学条件、质量评价和质量控制体系以及考试与考核等。提高自主学习质量的措施与途径包括转变观念、加强师资队伍建设、完善现代化教学设备和教学支持服务体系、建立自主学习质量体系和加强自主学习质量监控以及全面深化教学全过程的改革等。     

Renewing quality assurance at a time of turbulence

The current national and institutional focus on teaching and learning in higher education (HE) in the UK has led to a growing credentialisation of those teaching in this sector. There is now more emphasis on being recognised as being qualified to teach in HE and this information is being included in statistical reports, marketing documentation and other promotional materials. Thus, having a recognised qualification is becoming requisite for many, both those new to teaching in this sector and experienced colleagues, who hitherto had never needed to consider this. This paper considers some of the practicalities and potential pitfalls of introducing a professional recognition scheme for those involved in teaching and supporting learning across a university.     

关于建设我国高等教育质量保证体系的若干思考

加强科学管理,建设科学完善的高等教育质量保证体系,是高等学校提高教学质量的重要措施之一。高等教育质量保证离不开教学评估。创新高等教育质量保证体系,应在对以往本科教学评估进行科学、系统评估(元评估)的基础上进行。高等教育质量保证体系由内部质量保证体系和外部质量保证体系构成,其中内部质量保证体系是基础,外部质量保证体系是动力。面对新的形势和环境的变化,我们应努力探索新的高等教育质量评估范式。