Higher Education Quality Council Research Articles

Quality Practices: An Open Distance Learning Perspective

Global transformation in higher education over the past two decades has led to the implementation of national policies in order to measure the performance of institutions in South Africa. The Higher Education Quality Council (HEQC) adopted the quality assurance (QA) model for the purposes of accountability and governance in South African Higher Education. The first Council of Higher Education (CHE) audit, encouraged a compliance mentality through a ‘tick box’ mentality, thereby encouraging compliance of minimum standards. Thus, quality assurance audits became a ‘feared’ phenomenon in all higher education institutions in South Africa. The complete lack of stewardship in addressing the culture of quality and its’ implications for continuous improvement has led to inefficiencies in the entire higher education landscape. In this paper the ‘fuzzy’ and perhaps ‘slippery’ nature of quality is addressed through a critical analysis of the concepts of development, enhancement and assurance in relation to the quality of teaching and learning in higher education through a case study methodology using qualitative analysis in an open distance learning institution (ODL). The key argument is that although quality is important for improvement, practices at the institution are not changing in the way they should because of a quality culture that is determined by the Department of Higher Education and Training. Hence the research question is to determine the status of quality with a view of recommending total quality management as a strategy that would enhance the practice of quality in the organization. Therefore, this paper explores the current quality practices with the intent to improve the delivery of teaching and learning in an ODL environment.

The Swansea internal quality audit processes: a case study

Applying internal quality audit processes and procedures into higher education institutions has been under active consideration since the days of the former Higher Education Quality Council (HEQC) and the ideas have been much discussed within the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and by other funding agencies. There have, however, been few role models. Consequently, Swansea Institute decided to promote and implement its own internal system. This paper provides a case study description and analysis of this process including a consideration of the planning involved, institutional audit practice, selection and training of the auditors, the findings from the first six audits and finally, the review and evaluative outcomes along with a progress update.

The New UKQuality Framework

In August 1997 the new Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) took over the quality assurance functions of the Higher Education Quality Council (HEQC) and the Higher Education Funding Councils (HEFC). Just over two years later the QAA has announced the final important details of the new ‘Quality Framework’ which will operate in England and Northern Ireland from 2002 (in Scotland it will operate from the start of the 2000/01 academic year, the present time scale in Wales is uncertain). This article first describes the historical background to the new framework. It then outlines its main features. The main part of the article assesses the new framework against a number of ‘quality criteria’ derived from study of various external quality assurance regimes. The article raises questions in particular about the complexity and feasibility of the new framework and its ability in practice to produce reliable and consistent outcomes and about the extent to which it will accommodate increasing diversity of institutional mission and practice. It concludes that the QAA will face very considerable challenges in making the new framework effective and suitable to the rapidly changing nature of the provision it seeks to regulate.

An Evaluation of the Impact of External Quality Monitoring on a Higher Education College (1993–98)

ABSTRACT With the establishment, in August 1997, of a new UK‐wide Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), it is timely to reflect on the impact of the two principal forms of external quality monitoring which the QAA has replaced. First, the quality assessment by the funding councils, whose five‐year cycle of teaching quality assessment in universities and colleges in Scotland and Wales, which commenced in 1993, is now complete. Second, institutional quality audits of universities and colleges, conducted by the Higher Education Quality Council (HEQC) between 1993 and 1997. This paper reports the results of a five‐year action research study conducted at a college of higher education. The particular focus of the study was on issues arising from the development and implementation of a quality assurance system at the study institution, and attempts to reconcile requirements for accountability and efforts to encourage quality improvement. The paper reviews and evaluates the impact of each of the forms of external monitoring, teaching quality assessment and institutional audit, on the study institution. Results are presented using qualitative and quantitative data drawn from external performance measures, such as the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) and HEQC quality assessment and audit reports, and internal measures of staff experience and perceptions. Lessons are drawn in relation to perceived benefits, or otherwise, of external quality assessment and quality audit, and consideration is given to the implications which the findings have beyond the study institution and the Scottish higher education sector, and in particular for the newly established Quality Assurance Agency.

Quality enhancement in principle and practice: A case study in leading change

The paper presents a case-study about the experience of leading sector-wide change from within a national agency. This experience is analysed in relation to the literature on leadership and change and against the back-drop of wider social, economic and political changes affecting higher education in the UK -- changes that have parallels in other countries. From the literature, the author draws out certain 'principles' about leading change and highlights the activities that were developed in practice. The case that is discussed is that of the 3-year 'Graduate Standards Programme' mounted by the former Higher Education Quality Council in the UK. This Programme (the GSP) was formally set up to define and establish threshold standards for undergraduate degrees in the UK, but also sought to examine UK approaches to defining and assuring standards in the light of far-reaching changes affecting the higher education system. Lessons about leadership, managing change and quality enhancement in an academic context are drawn out. The author concludes that 'good process' is more important than the static notion of 'good practice' when seeking to create and lead change in higher education.

Co‐operation or Compliance? The National Committee of Inquiry Proposals on Quality and Standards

The recently published report of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, Higher Education in the Learning Society, is the most wide‐ranging official inquiry into UK higher education since the 1963 Robbins Report (NC1HE, 1997). One of the most important, and radical, sections of the new report is that dealing with quality and standards. The Committee's main proposals are summarised and the author comments on their desirability and feasibility. It draws on the author's knowledge and experience as the former Chief Executive of the Higher Education Quality Council (HEQC) [1]. [1] This article does not in any way commit or represent the views of the new Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.

The New Quality Assurance Arrangements in England and Wales

A new national quality assurance agency is about to commence operations. This article looks at the background to the new agency and at its immediate agenda, in which the recommendations of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (‘The Dearing Committee’ are likely to bulk large. The article suggests a number of issues which the new agency will need to resolve if it is to prove more durable than its predecessors, the Higher Education Quality Council and the Quality Assessment Divisions of the English and Welsh Higher Education Funding Councils.

Mass Higher Education and the search for standards: reflections on some issues emerging from the ‘Graduate Standards Programme’

AbstractThis paper sets out to explore the meanings and implications of academic standards in mass higher education. It attempts this in the context of the rapid expansion that has recently taken place in the UK. In doing so it draws on, and examines, selected themes that have emerged from the Higher Education Quality Council's ‘Graduate Standards Programme’ (though it does not attempt to give a full account of the findings of that work).It begins by discussing some of the implications of the ways in which UK HE has become a mass system. It then moves on to consider the roles of explicitness and professionalism in the establishment and assurance of academic standards, and their relationship to issues of public accountability. Having explored the possible tensions between professionalism and accountability, the paper questions whether it is helpful to frame discussions of standards in terms of a notional opposition between subjective and objective. It concludes by proposing another way of conceptualising standards, and discusses their possible future development in UK higher education.

An Evaluation of Early Developments in Higher Education Quality Management

Abstract This paper contends that the growth of Quality Management (QM) has been fuelled by the government's concern for greater accountability and the rise in managerialism in higher education institutions. It also notes that some members of the academic community have perceived certain aspects of QM to be a challenge to traditional academic autonomy. The differing QM roles of the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Higher Education Quality Council are examined and various stakeholders’ initial concerns with early QM structures and systems are explored. Harvey and Green's (1993) typology is used as an analytical framework to uncover the rationale for the blend of QM that is developing. There has been the tendency to utilise more mechanistic systems such as ISO 9000 and Total Quality Management because of the problems of measurement with more qualitative approaches. The paper concludes by warning that there needs to be far greater agreement amongst stakeholders on the nature of quality an...

National Vocational Qualifications: is policy supporting the principles of lifelong learning?

ABSTRACT 1996 marks the 10th anniversary of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications, the body responsible for a national framework of competency‐based education and training in the United Kingdom. Concurrently, the qualifications are being highlighted as they are developed at professional levels 4 and 5.The anniversary was preceded by a plethora of reports. Beaumont flagged up issues of validity, reliability and quality control in relation to the organisational structure of the framework. The Institute of Employment Studies noted that there had only been a marginal increase in the number of employers implementing the qualifications and the Higher Education Quality Council began the process of persuading the higher education sector by noting the positive contributions that competency‐based assessment processes could make. However, there remain very real issues to debate. Whether knowledge and understanding can be ‘inferred’ from performance. Whether the qualifications are suitable for the comple...

The Quality of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Evaluating the Evidence

AbstractThe issue of the quality of teaching in higher education is in the process of becoming a matter of greater public interest than hitherto. This paper concerns the evidence on which quality can be assessed. Drawing on the relevant literature from both the secondary and tertiary sectors of education, it reviews the types of evidence which are available. A critical analysis is offered of the extent to which each isolates teaching quality from distinct variables such as student characteristics and assessment standards. It is argued that quantitative approaches do not currently offer potential to assess teaching quality and are unlikely to do so given the current structure of higher education. The greatest promise lies in the external scrutiny recently instituted by the Higher Education Funding Councils and the Higher Education Quality Council. It is recommended that this scrutiny would be further strengthened by integrating the functions of these two authorities and by phasing out the use of numerical assessment scales in favour of wholly qualitative reporting.

Total Quality Management: Some thoughts

These comments are a personal view on the preceding papers. Readers of the papers will have gained an unusually candid insight into the corporate minds (if not the souls) of a number of institutions of higher education, But they will also have found themselves faced, yet again, with that most intractable of questions, what is quality. Not surprisingly, an easy answer is not to be found here: we are in Pirsig country once again, finding our way along that long and winding route through the mountains of the spirit. The Basic Question is that: is TQM (or TQ or QM) fit for its purpose? An unanswerable question until the next has been addressed: what is its purpose: is it to do with quality, or is it to do with power? Two very different perspectives are presented in the cases described in the seminar papers: TQM viewed as a management tool to increase productivity, keep the customers happy, and cut down waste (the power model); the TQM as a means of making us better people, of developing our professional good manners, and providing us with a moral education (the quality model). But the papers do all seem to have one thing in common; they describe the introduction of TQM as a response to a crisis financial, organisational, or social. Interest in it has also for the most part been born of corporate or individual frustration and fear: 'Surely there must be a better way?', says the weary head of department, or 'There's going to be a better way!', says the Director. Whatever causes the flywheel to start moving, TQM is concerned principally with changes to attitudes and institutions. But the papers also describe an approach that requires commitment, dedication, humility and tact on the part of all concerned, and these qualities are not always in full supply. Watching from outside, from a neutral standpoint, what looks valuable, what looks usable from the particular experiences described? Roger Ellis's list is helpful here: explicitness of ends and means; an awareness of the value and importance of service; cost effectiveness; and the promotion of individual motivation to do things well, would appear to be critical to the well-being of any institution of higher education. The list echoes others, such as the seven basic questions of the Division of Quality Audit of the Higher Education Quality Council: what are you trying to do? why are you trying to do it? how are you doing it? why are you doing it that way? why is that the best way of doing it? how do you know it works? how do you improve it? In addressing matters such as these, TQM may well be a valuable antidote to complacency and, as such, offer an effective way of developing a sense