Issues and Challenges of Quality Assurance in Higher Education Institutes: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Quality Assurance is a timely topic in higher education that ensures the quality has been fulfilled in order to achieve the expected objectives. While many success stories and improvements have been reported, implementation issues and challenges have been highlighted in quality assurance systems. Therefore, a systematic literature review can be used to be aware of recent advancements and unsolved problems of the scenario. To this end, this study reviews the related research studies highlighting the issues, challenges, and proposed solution approaches. Accordingly, this study identified issues of quality assurance under three main categories: 1. institute-related issues, 2. quality assurance process related issues, and 3. quality assurance stakeholder related issues. Further, three main solution approaches were identified: 1. attitude changes and increasing the awareness of stakeholders, 2. policy-level changes of the system, and 3. quality assurance process improvements and facilitating information system solutions to address these issues. Among these solutions, process improvements and information system solutions can be identified as a substantial solution to address these issues. However, to create an effective information system solution to facilitate higher education quality assurance, a reliable model is necessary. This literature review highlights the lack of such a reliable model for developing an information system that aims to facilitate higher education quality assurance.