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)

Prepare for voting

1. Select Voting on the home page

2. Select the session you are

attending 3. Vote

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.'

qaa.ac.uk +44 (0) 1452 557050

© The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education 2016 Registered charity numbers 1062746 and SC037786

Thank you for listening