(1) Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, University of the Western Cape, P/B X17, Bellville, 7535, South Africa
Abstract:
The International Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education’s Guidelines of Good Practice by higher education
quality assurance agencies need substantial revision before they can be considered adequate by stakeholders in any national
higher education system. Various revisions are proposed in this article. But the International Network of Quality Assurance
Agencies in Higher Education also argues that adoption of its Guidelines of Good Practice has international significance in
that the decisions about higher education quality made by agencies which comply with them can be accepted at face value universally.
This conclusion, however, cannot be accepted until the Guidelines of Good Practice are amended to address the processes whereby
each agency can become comfortable with the criteria and standards which the others impose in their respective jurisdictions.
This article also maintains that, even if the Guidelines of Good Practice were technically perfect, agencies and/or governments
ought to subject any proposals for their implementation to the discipline of rigorous risk management processes.