World Maritime University

Abstract

The issue of quality assurance in higher education is at the top of the agenda of universities throughout the world. For the World Maritime University, an institution with highly international staff and student bodies, a complex base of voluntary funding and isolated from any national or European system of education, the problem of defining quality and instituting a quality management system has been a particularly complex and vital task. Our quality standards are the key to our survival.Established in 1983, the University spent its first decade defining its corporate vision, ultimately concluding that it wished to be an excellent postgraduate university rather than an excellent training school. The first steps towards a quality assurance system could be made. External quality audits in 1998 and 1999 resulted in a wide spectrum of quality initiatives, from policy and program structure changes, to the establishment of a quality management system, including internal audit, feedback and systems of quality management. Continuing interaction with external parties ensures international comparability. Of primary importance is continual commitment to a quality culture by all staff — and in particular by University leadership.The 2004 audit by the European Universities Association shows that quality management at the University is well established, and that the University is well placed to apply its quality culture to its new global outreach programs.