National Quality Assurance Agencies Research Articles

University Actors Responding to the National Quality Assurance Regime for Higher Education in Malawi: A Case of Instrumentality, Pragmatism and Symbolic Compliance

ABSTRACTThe literature shows that the question of how to integrate quality assurance into higher education institutions is associated with several obstacles including non‐support from university actors. This study explored the university actors' response to the recently implemented external quality assurance and accreditation regime for higher education in Malawi. The findings showed that university actors respond to external quality assurance in divergent ways, mainly characterised by formal instrumentality, professional pragmatism and symbolic compliance. This meant that it would be naïve for external quality assurance agencies to assume that when university actors participate in external accreditation processes, it means that they embrace external quality assurance as a mechanism for enhancing quality. The implication was that national policy makers and quality assurance agencies should not consider university actors as ‘passive recipients’ that mutely accept quality assurance reforms, but rather seriously attend to them as both ‘makers’ and ‘shapers’ of policy in order to develop quality assurance systems that can be genuinely embraced. The study contributes to research that take a critical perspective in interpreting university personnel response to quality assurance.

Mutual recognition of qualifications, health workforce migration, and graduate outcomes: a comparative mapping study of undergraduate dental education in Europe

BackgroundThe resource needs of health services are served by the recognition of qualifications across borders which allows professionals to migrate between countries. The movement of dentists across the European Union (EU), especially into the United Kingdom (UK), has provided a valuable boost to workforce supply. Recent changes to policy recognising overseas qualifications have brought attention to the equivalence of qualifications awarded in EU countries. Professional regulators need to be confident that dentists who qualified elsewhere have the appropriate knowledge, skills and experience to practise safely and effectively. The aim of this study was to compare UK and EU dental curricula, identify any differences, and compare the extent of pre-qualification clinical experience.MethodsThis was a mixed methods study comprising a questionnaire and website searches to identify information about curricula, competences, and quality assurance arrangements in each country. The questionnaire was sent to organisations responsible for regulating dental education or dental practice in EU member states. This was supplemented with information obtained from website searches of stakeholder organisations for each country including regulators, professional associations, ministries, and providers of dental education. A map of dental training across the EU was created.ResultsNational learning outcomes for dental education were identified for seven countries. No national outcomes were identified 13 countries; therefore, learning outcomes were mapped at institution level only. No information about learning outcomes was available for six countries. In one country, there is no basic dental training. Clinical skills and communication were generally well represented. Management and leadership were less represented. Only eight countries referenced a need for graduates to be aware of their own limitations. In most countries, quality assurance of dental education is not undertaken by dental organisations, but by national quality assurance agencies for higher education. In many cases, it was not possible to ascertain the extent of graduates’ direct clinical experience with patients.ConclusionsThe findings demonstrate considerable variation in learning outcomes for dental education between countries and institutions in Europe. This presents a challenge to decision-makers responsible for national recognition and accreditation of diverse qualifications across Europe to maintain a safe, capable, international workforce; but one that this comparison of programmes helps to address.

Interaction of the university with the city administration and employers in the process of educational quality management of the faculty of economics

Object: Higher education is one of the main factors of economic competitiveness in the global economy, which is increasingly based on knowledge. The imperative of countries to improve employment skills requires high-quality teaching in educational institutions. National and transnational debates, such as the Bologna Process, direct government regulation or incentives, competition between private and public educational institutions -all this encourages educational institutions to include issues of teaching quality in their agenda. Moreover, national quality assurance agencies encourage thinking on this topic, even if their influence is contradictory.Methods: As higher education systems grow and diversify, society is increasingly concerned about the quality of programs. Much attention is paid to public assessments and international rankings of higher education institutions. However, in these comparisons, as a rule, excessive attention is paid to scientific research, and their results are used as a measure of the value of an educational institution. If these processes do not affect the quality of teaching, it is partly because measuring the quality of teaching is a difficult task.Results: Institutions can implement evaluation mechanisms to identify and promote best teaching practices. The environment of higher education institutions can contribute to improving the quality of teaching through various means. For example, national policies implemented by government agencies or recommendations issued by quality assurance agencies are likely to help university leaders implement a quality culture encompassing teaching.Conclusions: The study will analyze teaching quality indicators that consider effective initiatives in the field of quality of interaction of higher education institutions with the city administration and contribute to reflection; based on the above, in turn, it can help other educational institutions to improve the quality of teaching, thereby improving the process of educational quality management of the faculty of economics. The study will analyze the role of lecturers, faculty, central university and the state. The factors of long-term improvement of the quality of teaching for the teaching staff, decision-making authorities, and educational institutions have also been identified. The purpose of the study is to contribute to the analysis of the interaction of the university with the city administration and employers in the process of quality management of the faculty of economics.

Challenges of accreditation in an African university: reflections from the Eduardo Mondlane University, in Mozambique

ABSTRACT As elsewhere in Africa, Mozambique established, during the 2000s, a national higher education quality assurance system to cope with the country’s rapid expansion of higher education. In 2014, the national quality assurance agency began the accreditation process. From 2015 to 2020, the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), the country’s oldest and largest public university, has accredited about 30 academic programmes. Based on UEM’s case and on reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action, this article examines the challenges of accreditation in Mozambique and in Africa. The reflection focuses on challenges related to the process and instruments, organisational setting, resources and policy and impact of accreditation. These challenges suggest that, alongside establishing quality assurance mechanisms in Africa, attention should also be paid to identifying and dealing with challenges constraining or facilitating implementation of these mechanisms, particularly if quality assurance systems are intended to improve the quality of institutions and make them accountable.

Institutional accreditation of online institutions in the Anglophone Caribbean: synergies and misalignments

ABSTRACT This article explores the status of quality assurance provisions, internal and external, for online education in the Anglophone Caribbean region and provides a comparative analysis of current global trends. The findings of that analysis show that there is a misalignment between the provisions of the external quality assurance agencies and needs of the online institutions, particularly in the region. However, it also highlights the existence of a regional framework policy for quality assurance of online programmes which, if implemented, could alleviate much of the disconnect between the national external quality assurance agencies and the online institutions. Finally, it suggests the need for greater harmonisation between the standards of the various national quality assurance agencies and alignment to regional and international quality assurance for online models.

Evaluation of a quality assurance framework for promoting quality research, innovation and development in higher education institutions in Zimbabwe

In the spirit of quality assurance, this paper presents a self-evaluation and peer review of the external quality assurance framework for research implemented by the national quality assurance agency for Zimbabwe. Documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews were used to develop a self-evaluation report which was then subjected to international peer review as is the norm in quality assurance evaluations. The evidence from self-evaluation indicates that the quality assurance framework generated significant improvement in the quality and quantity of research with gaps identified in doctoral training and supportive structures for research. Peer review recommended the inclusion of a performance-based research funding arrangement akin to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) used in the United Kingdom whilst throwing caution on the contentious nature of the REF. The paper recommends the development, implementation, and review of quality assurance frameworks for research to guide institutions, enhance research, and to maintain consistency and harmony in the research system. These findings can be adapted by different national quality assurance agencies involved in the regulation, promotion, and enhancement of the quality of teaching, innovation, knowledge production, and engagement/outreach in higher education.

EXPLORING MECHANISMS FOR ASSURING THE QUALITY OF OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING IN PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION IN NAMIBIA

Using the social realism theory of Margret Archer as an analytical tool, this article presents the findings of a research study which was conducted to explore mechanisms for assuring the quality of open and distance learning (ODL) that are implemented in higher education (HE) in Namibia. The study employed a case study research design, taking a pragmatic paradigm whereby three programmes offered through ODL modes of delivery were selected from each of the participating institutions and investigated in terms of the various mechanisms used to assure their quality. Three methods of data collection were used, namely interviews with academics and administrators involved in ODL, document analysis and a questionnaire administered to ODL students. Data were analysed and interpreted using qualitative and quantitative methods. The study found that both higher education institutions (HEIs) and National Quality Assurance Agencies (NQAAs) have in place overarching policies and procedures for quality assurance (QA). However, the QA mechanisms adopted by HEIs and NQAAs comprised a single set of ‘one-size-fits-all’ criteria covering all types of modes of delivery. It was, therefore, found that the ODL criteria were not sufficiently and explicitly covered and that the systems were biased towards the conventional, face-to-face modes of delivery. Based on these findings, the study recommended that both HEIs and NQAAs should have in place clearly and explicitly defined QA criteria and procedures for ODL in order to adequately address the unique quality challenges faced by ODL

A comparative study of relationship between the government and national quality assurance agencies in Australia, Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan: policy change, governance models, emerging roles

ABSTRACT In recent years, governmental policy changes have exerted significant impact on the structural transformation, role diversity and commercialisation of national quality assurance agencies in many nations. Due to policy change, ongoing structural transformation and emerging roles, four national quality assurance agencies in Australia, Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan were selected as case studies. The study presents three major findings. First, although a state-controlled governance model remained popular in all cases, the university-led and supermarket models were chosen due to changes in policy. Second, case agencies intended to develop new roles in order to respond to policy change and public demands, particularly enhancing professionalism, redefining the relationship with universities as partners, strengthening the linkage with international quality assurance networks, providing quality assurance services with foreign providers. Third, autonomy and independence remain a considerable challenge for quality assurance agencies.

Optimizing faculty talents through identifying entrepreneurial champions: an ELECTRE IV approach

PurposeThe rapid increase in higher education institutions (HEIs) can affect the provision of quality education especially when there are no clear integrated objectives to serve the overall HEI as well as the lack of management related to human resource needs. The quality of HEIs relies on the performance of their employees who are considered as one of the most important resources. Several studies demonstrated that the concept of talent management is not well defined for HEIs and considered it as a new study; however, researchers emphasized on its importance to improve the employees' performance and to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. The main aim of this paper is to propose a faculty equity framework for talent optimization in HEIs to help these institutions to recruit the right people, manage and motivate them to achieve their future goals and serve the best quality.Design/methodology/approachThe faculty equity framework criteria are derived from the standards of national and international quality assurance and accreditation agencies which are grouped into three categories: alignment, capabilities and engagement. These criteria are used to outrank faculties and determine the entrepreneurial champions. As the framework does not require setting weights for these criteria, the authors propose to adapt the ELECTRE IV to outrank faculties.FindingsThe proposed framework has given faculty a chance to assimilate the HEI dominant culture and guidance to improve their performance through comparing themselves to entrepreneurial champions who are better aligned, capable and engaged. Also, the framework offers the HEI an opportunity to effectively retain talents and achieve maximized outcomes.Originality/valueThis research provides HEIs with a practical guide on how to enhance practices, policies and strategies regarding their human capital in order to achieve their missions and strategic goals.

Battling Academic Corruption in Higher Education: Does External Quality Assurance (EQA) Offer a Ray of Hope?

The post-1980s changes in the global higher education landscape have triggered a burgeoning of incidents of academic corruption in higher education institutions. Since 2000, the discourse on how to combat academic corruption has gained traction in higher education and quality assurance is advanced as one of the strategies for fighting corruption in higher education. In 2016, UNESCO (and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation) issued a “wakeup call” to quality assurance systems to take up a leading role in the battle against academic corruption. However, a dearth of empirical and conceptual studies on how the quality assurance systems, in general, and external quality assurance systems, in particular, can take up a leading role in the crusade against academic corruption exists. This conceptual paper, using the crime-punishment model as an analytical lens, explores how the national quality assurance agencies (and systems) can exercise the leadership role in combating academic corruption. The paper advances the setting of academic integrity standards, institutional and programme accreditation, accreditation of academic journals, sharing information and promoting whistleblowing, monitoring of institutions, applying sanctions, and ranking of higher education institutions on the basis of integrity indicators as options that are available to quality assurance agencies in the exercise of their leadership role in combating academic corruption. These approaches are hypothesised to create both incentives and disincentives for the institutions and staff in connection with engaging in academic corruption. Nevertheless, the paper takes cognisance of the fact that external quality assurance is necessary but not sufficient in combating corruption at the level of the academy.

Strengthening internal quality assurance as a lever for enhancing student learning experiences and academic success: lessons from Namibia

ABSTRACTHigher education plays an important role in the social, economic and political development of any given nation. In the Namibian context, quality assurance systems have been put in place at both national and institutional levels through the establishment of national quality assurance agencies and units responsible for quality in institutions. A critical literature analysis of quality assurance systems in higher education shows that although they claim to strike a balance between improvement and accountability, external quality assurance mechanisms tend to have an accountability and compliance focus and to promote managerialisation and bureaucratisation of academia. This article argues that internal quality assurance systems, built on a strong quality culture, tend to be more effective in enhancing the quality of student learning experience and academic success than externally driven quality assurance. Thus, to promote genuine quality, more energy must be invested in external quality assurance capacitating and strengthening internal quality assurance systems.

Contract Cheating And Academic Integrity In Higher Education:, What Can Universities, Governments And Quality Assurance Agencies Do To Understand, Prevent And Respond To The Challenge?

There is a global challenge to higher education posed by “contract cheating”. “Contract cheating” occurs when a student contracts a third party to create an assignment for them, and then the student submits it as their own work. This particularly insidious form of cheating has been exacerbated by the commodification of higher education and the increasingly popular “sharing economy”. Contract cheating not only threatens the academic integrity of the individual student’s grades and their degree; it also raises suspicion about all the degrees awarded by an institution. Globally, universities have been struggling to combat contract cheating. This paper defines and describes the problem and then summarizes the findings of recent research and offers solutions. New Zealand was one of the first countries to criminalize contract cheating. A legal approach is a solution which every country needs to consider because it directly targets the commercial entities creating the product. A pedagogical approach requires universities to be proactive and there are many things which universities can do to reduce and manage the problem. A quality assurance approach can involve national quality assurance agencies working with government departments and tertiary education providers to conduct research and provide guidance to all universities. This paper draws on recent research produced by the accreditation agencies, individual researchers, and university organizations. It refers to research in selected countries—especially New Zealand, Australia and the UK—to counteract contract cheating. The solutions will be of interest to all universities, quality assurance agencies and governments because contract cheating is a global problem which challenges the academic integrity of every higher education institution.

The evolutionary dynamics of quality assurance systems in European higher education: the view from Slovenia

ABSTRACTThe Bologna Process and its aim of building the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) encouraged its member countries to establish comparable quality assurance systems across the EHEA and consequently, the need to analyse national and institutional responses to supranational development of this field also substantially increased, in particular in under-researched higher education contexts. To this end, the paper addresses the dynamics behind the development (and internationalisation) of quality assurance policies and practices in Slovenian higher education by focusing on the establishment of the national quality assurance agency, on the introduction of the accreditation system and on institutional quality assurance development. Through the lens of institutional isomorphism, it shows that in Slovenia, quality assurance development was largely influenced by preferences of national political actors, which calls into question the convergence of quality assurance policies and practices across the EHEA region.

Restructuring quality assurance frameworks

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how the Japanese and Taiwanese national quality assurance (QA) agencies, National Institution for Academic Degrees and Quality Enhancement (NIAD-QE) and Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT), transform their respective frameworks in response to social demands, and analyze and compare the respective approaches for the key concepts of autonomy, accountability, improvement and transparency.Design/methodology/approachUsing a qualitative document analysis approach, this paper initially examines the higher education system, major policies and QA developments, after which the methods associated with the QA restructuring transformations are outlined in terms of motivations, expectations and challenges. Finally, the NIAD-QE and HEEACT evaluation policies and frameworks are compared to assess how each has prepared to respond to emerging challenges.FindingsDuring the QA framework restructuring, both the NIAD-QE and HEEACT struggled to achieve autonomy, accountability, improvements and transparency. While the new internal Japanese QA policy is assured through the external QA, the Taiwanese internal QA, which has a self-accreditation policy, is internally embedded with university autonomy emphasized. The QA policies in both the NIAD-QE and HEEACT have moved from general compliance to overall improvement, and both emphasize that accountability should be achieved through improvements. Finally, both agencies sought transparency through the disclosure of the QA process and/or results to the public and the enhancement of public communication.Originality/valueThis study gives valuable insights into the QA framework in Asian higher education institutions and how QA has been transformed to respond to social needs.

Higher Education Research Community in Taiwan: An Emerging Field

This paper aims to explore the evolution and characteristics of the higher education research community in Taiwan. In echoing the development of the East Asian region, Taiwan has made substantial progress during the past two decades. The massification of higher education itself has played a major role in promoting the academic differentiation or division of labour, including higher education research area. With the momentum gathered since the 1990s, we have seen the appearance of a professional society and its official journal. A national quality assurance agency and its research arms also promote the deepening of higher education research in Taiwan. Despite more emphases initially on instrumental or management-oriented purposes, higher education research in Taiwan today is moving in diverse and balanced directions, with a variety of themes and methods. However, the lack of a university-level degree programme due to constrained graduate employment prospects is inconsistent with the development of massification in higher education. In addition, the incoming large-scale higher education restructuring due to the rapidly declining birth rate has become an unstable factor to the development of this emerging field.

위험관리기반의 군수품 품질보증업무 변화를 위한 제언

최근 들어 군수품에 대한 품질문제가 다양한 형태로 발생하면서, 품질보증업무를 수행하는 국방기술품질원의 위험관리기반 프레임웍에 대한 변화의 필요성이 제기되고 있다. 본 논문에서는 먼저 위험관리관련 수행된 기존 연구들을 검토한 후, 현재 국방기술품질원과 위험관리기반 체제를 채택하고 있는 국내 외 기관 두 곳의 업무규정을 비교 분석하여 문제점 식별 및 개선점을 도출 하였다. 본 연구에서 제안하는 새로운 위험관리 프레임웍은 PDCA 프레임웍을 기반으로 눈에 보이는 관리를 위해 Fishbone차트의 활용을 제안하였다. 또한 마인드맵 소프트웨어의 활용을 통해 군수품 위험관리 사례의 구현으로 실제업무의 적용가능성을 검토해 보았다. Recently, Recently, many quality problems in military supplies are raised such as K-series weapons(K-2 tank, K-9 Self-propelled artillery and K-11 Armoured Car and etc.) quality issues, leaking combat shoe issue and so on. Existing one and only national quality assurance agency for military supplies, Defense Agency for Technology and Quality(DTaQ) adapted risk management based framework to perform the government quality assurance activities. However, risk framework established by DTaQ seems lack of objectivity, consistency and efficiency. In this research, we first reviewed the DTaQ's regulations to identify the possible problems, and then suggested the alternatives which are based on advanced risk management framework and plan-do-check-action(PDCA) cycle. In conclusion, we suggested the new risk management framework, so called visual PDCA fishbone chart, and illustrated the use of the framework via real instance.

Academic Programmes in Universities in East Africa: A Catalyst to Development

The types of academic programmes offered by universities, both public and private, are considered to be critical to the realization of development agendas. This study was descriptive in nature and sought to establish whether universities in the East African region were offering academic programmes that were relevant to the realization of the global development agendas. The study further sought to establish whether there was any significant association between the academic programmes offered by public and private universities in the region. The sample was drawn from the websites of the national quality assurance agencies in the region and consisted of one hundred and thirty universities whose academic programmes had been accredited by the agencies. The study revealed that the Humanities and Commerce categories of academic programmes were over represented in the market in relation to the global development demands, and thus, their further development in universities needed to be restricted. On the other hand, the categories of Political and Legal related studies, Sociology, Psychology and Development related studies, Architecture and Engineering and Natural and Life Sciences, which were critical to the realization of the global development agendas, were not adequately being offered by the universities. In addition, significantly more public universities were found to be offering the Architecture and Engineering and Natural and Life Sciences categories of academic programmes. This was attributed to the greater government financial support given to public rather than private universities in the region. The support further translates to greater potential within the public universities to provide the necessary academic resources for the backing of the latter categories of academic programmes. In conclusion, the prioritization of the development and implementation of academic programmes that are relevant is a sure way of accelerating the realization of the development agendas in the region.

Why is quality in higher education not achieved? The view of academics

Quality assurance is currently an established activity in Europe, driven either by national quality assurance agencies or by institutions themselves. However, whether quality assurance is perceived as actually being capable of promoting quality is still a question open to discussion. Based on three different views on quality derived from the literature – quality as culture, as compliance and as consistency – the current article sheds light on this issue by identifying the main obstacles to quality as perceived by Portuguese academics. The analysis reveals that academics tend to see those obstacles as essentially related to the view of quality as culture and especially with its structural component, including the design and functioning of institutional governance and management. Although this may indeed correspond to the Portuguese higher education institutions’ reality, one must not forget that academics tend to have a poor knowledge about the structural frames that are embedded in governance and management. By highlighting obstacles related to different views on quality, this study may serve as a base to the development of more effective quality assurance mechanisms.

Approaches of Quality Assurance Models on Adult Education Provisions

The present paper aims at elaborating a comparative analysis on quality assurance approaches and their impact on adult education across European Higher Education Area. As soon as Quality Assurance was recognised as one of the major concerns of Bologna Process, the concept started being reflected in national legislation, policy making at national level and quality assurance agencies provisions. At a later stage, Quality Assurance managed to substantially influence institutional priorities and focuses, no matter if external quality assurance reviews had formal and financial consequences or not. We can only speak about good quality education if also the Social Dimension is of good quality. Ensuring equal opportunities in higher education is not only a question of social justice, but also about improving and strengthening the quality of higher education, therefore quality assurance must take account of the social dimension of higher education in making certain that institutions would operate with the goal of fostering equality within the academic world and ultimately in society. Quality Assurance should strengthen its role in regularly monitor and foster the access, succession and completion rates of underrepresented groups in higher education (ESU, 2011).Since social dimension might be defined as all obstacles to access, progress and completion in higher education (with the strongest emphasis on obstacles to access), we can state that ensuring access of adult population to higher education is a matter of social dimension as it was included in Bologna Process in 2001 (Prague Communique, 2001). Countries have different cultures and financial possibilities, universities are located in a specific social environment, often serve different groups in society. Some study programmes are more open to underrepresented groups. Students have different needs; they can come from different socio-economic backgrounds, can be mobile students, students coming from rural areas, adult students, etc. The main objective of this paper is to analyse to which extent do different models of Quality Assurance processes manage to reflect the provisions and practices related to adult education and the priority that is being given to adult education in institutional practices. Some models look at the internal quality assurance system and processes, while others look at the results of these processes – the quality itself, some models look at the achievement of Intended Learning Outcomes, while others look at the vision, mission and objectives of Higher Education Institutions. With widening access agendas gaining momentum and the recognition of the importance of support structures, quality assurance mechanisms need to pay closer attention to adult education as crucial segment of social dimension in higher education.

Skills development for employability and inclusive growth: Policy dilemmas and priorities in South Asia

Most countries in South Asia are either in the middle-income bracket or moving towards it; to move up the value chain towards higher incomes, they need more skilled people and larger investments in infrastructure. The combination of globalization, technological advancement, unprecedented labour mobility, and the demographic dividend offers them enormous opportunities—but they urgently need to catalyze the private sector through unified funding to scale up the high-quality training that can have a major and positive impact on the economy. This article suggests crucial ways to transform the skills training ecosystem so it can respond to the labour market’s needs, both at home and overseas. Among them are more effective funding arrangements, strong institutional arrangements for effective coordination, improved training modalities, significant engagement by the private sector, and quality assurance through partnerships between the national quality assurance agencies and industry/sector councils.