going global 2016: quality assurance: a quintessential asset to nation building?

Quality assurance: A quintessential asset to nation building?

Dr Elizabeth Halford Head of Research and Intelligence, QAA

Going Global - May 2016

Significant issues emerging from the three country case studies presented today. How are the purposes of QA being enacted?

•  QA in higher education has a role in promoting a more open and transparent society (Ukraine)

•  QA can support economic goals, such as encouraging private sector investment in the provision of higher education (Bahrain)

•  QA can engage with the higher education curriculum and pedagogy, to ensure that graduates gain employability skills in relation to the needs of the labour market (Morocco)

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The role of quality assurance in different national systems of higher education Lessons from nine country case studies and consideration of some common themes

Background:

Previous research commissioned by QAA in 2015, published in hard copy for Going Global 2016. Phase 2 currently being undertaken

Encouraging Cultures of Quality in Higher Education: An International Perspective

Focus on UK, USA, Australia, India, China, Brazil, Mexico, Columbia and Chile

Emerging trends in higher education in all countries •  Major expansion in the size of systems -

both student numbers and numbers of institutions

•  A move from elite to mass systems

•  Increasing differentiation of institutional types

•  Growth of private providers, leading to mixed economies of public/private provision

Is quality assurance a quintessential asset to nation building? QA has a number of purposes. It can:

•  promote economic competitiveness

•  encourage social justice and equality of opportunity

•  address historic inequalities of income distribution within a population

•  facilitate political and cultural change.

Common themes in these purposes •  The importance of an international focus - are skills

appropriate for a global economy; can graduates get jobs in an international market?

•  Experience and support from other countries is valuable - lessons from developed systems through international collaboration

•  The need to regulate across diversity to safeguard standards and the student experience

•  The transportability of qualifications and the need for international benchmarking

How do these themes resonate with the findings of QAA research in other countries?

•  History is important - it is easier to change structures and processes than cultures!

•  The relationship between quality and regulation is crucial

•  Where does power reside within a quality system? Inspection vs. peer review; consumerism vs. managerialism

•  There is a need to recognise considerable diversity within systems - for institutions and programmes

•  Managing cultural change within systems - dealing with rejection and resistance

•  Focusing resources for QA - the importance of robust data; defining risk appropriately, retrospectively and predictively!

Challenges suggested by QAA research

•  Managing cultural change within systems - dealing with rejection and resistance

•  Focusing resources for QA

-  defining risk appropriately, retrospectively and predictively!

-  the importance of robust data

•  Inherent conflicts - does regulation confer prestige, but ignore low standards, if meeting a need?

-  possible public/private tension

•  International collaboration and competition - managing the power relationships

QAA's involvement in nation building - Albania •  QAA is currently supporting the Public Agency for

Accreditation of Higher Education (PAAHE) to review all 35 Albanian universities

•  The British Council has played a key role in facilitating the agreement

Lindita Nikolla, Minister of Education and Sports, Albania:

'When we came into power in 2013, reform of our chaotic and unregulated higher education sector was a priority…the education ministry decided to look at the UK model for best practice in quality assurance and QAA was our partner of choice.'

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