Quality Of Higher Education

This book focuses on quality work in higher education, and examines the relationship between the organizational and pedagogical dimensions of quality work in higher education. Bringing together different disciplinary traditions, including educational science, sociology, and organisational studies, it addresses the following principal research question: How is quality work carried out in higher education? The book addresses a wide variety of academic, administrative and leadership practices that are involved in quality work in higher education institutions. The chapters in this book examine core issues crucial in the design and content of study programs, such as modes of teaching, learning and curricula design, as well as institutional practices regarding assessment and quality enhancement. The introductory and concluding chapter present an overarching focus on quality work as a lens to analyse intentional activities within higher education institutions directed at how study programmes and courses are designed, governed, and operated.

Many countries now employ national evaluation systems to demonstrate publicly that universities provide a quality education. However, the current processes of quality evaluation are often detached from the practices of teaching and learning. In particular, those who teach and those who learn still have to be won over to such audit processes.This book argues that it is time for the higher education sector to concern itself with the human dimension so as to develop both academic professionalism and students’ commitment to their learning. Based on five completed research projects, which explore academics’ and students’ experiences and their views of quality evaluation, the book argues that developing the intrinsic values of teaching and learning held by academics and students is key to achieving high quality education.In this book, the author critically reviews the four most frequently used terms related to current quality evaluation: ‘fitness for purpose’, ‘value for money’, ‘student satisfaction’ and ‘students-as-customers’, and argues for a motivationally intelligent quality approach, emphasising the moral dimension and the intrinsic values of academics and students. The author also outlines an improved quality evaluation system that encourages and increases academics’ and students’ commitment to teaching and learning.

An ambitious, comprehensive reimagining of 21st century higher education Improving Quality in American Higher Education outlines the fundamental concepts and competencies society demands from today's college graduates, and provides a vision of the future for students, faculty, and administrators. Based on a national, multidisciplinary effort to define and measure learning outcomes—the Measuring College Learning project—this book identifies 'essential concepts and competencies' for six disciplines. These essential concepts and competencies represent efforts towards articulating a consensus among faculty in biology, business, communication, economics, history, and sociology—disciplines that account for nearly 40 percent of undergraduate majors in the United States. Contributions from thought leaders in higher education, including Ira Katznelson, George Kuh, and Carol Geary Schneider, offer expert perspectives and persuasive arguments for the need for greater clarity, intentionality, and quality in U.S. higher education. College faculty are our best resource for improving the quality of undergraduate education. This book offers a path forward based on faculty perspectives nationwide: Clarify program structure and aims Articulate high-quality learning goals Rigorously measure student progress Prioritize higher order competencies and disciplinarily grounded conceptual understandings A culmination of over two years of efforts by faculty and association leaders from six disciplines, this book distills the national conversation into a delineated set of fundamental ideas and practices, and advocates for the development and use of rigorous assessment tools that are valued by faculty, students, and society. Improving Quality in American Higher Education brings faculty voices to the fore of the conversation and offers an insightful look at the state of higher education, and a realistic strategy for better serving our students.

This study addresses debates on academic standards and quality assurance from the perspectives of institutional leaders, national quality bodies and higher education researchers. It includes the results of studies of the impact of external quality assurance upon management and decision making.

The concept of quality in higher education is by no means a new one. By one set of definitions or another, colleges and universities throughout the world have always held the pursuit of excellence as their primary goal. Why then has the quality approach, developed and popularized in industry, and how increasingly applied in health care and government, receiving so much attention in higher education at this moment? What does this perspective add to the approaches to excellence with which they have long embraced?These are the two primary questions that this book seeks to address. Chapters and contributors include: "The New Productivity" by Peter F. Drucker; "World War n and the Quality Movement" by J. M. Juran; "The Quality Approach to Higher Education: Context of Concepts for Change" by Brent Ruben; "The Big Questions in Higher Education Today" by L. Edwin Coate; "An American Approach to Quality" by Marilyn R. Zuckerman and Lewis J. Hatala; "Quality hi Higher Education: Critical Issues in Definition and Assessment" by Brent Ruben; and "Ten Areas for Future Research in Total Quality Management" by A. Blanton Godfrey. The volume is graced with an opening essay by Francis L. Lawrence, president of Rutgers University.Higher education is in the public spotlight today due to the many challenges it now faces: rising tuition costs; frustration about a tight job market for graduates; calls for increased faculty productivity; concerns about political correctness; and criticisms regarding the use of grant and research funds, among others. Quality in Higher Education is a particularly timely book that will greatly benefit educators, university administrators, students, and sociologists, and all those who are interested in higher education today.

Interest in the quality of higher education provision has been steadily increasing over the last twenty years. This has been driven largely by the international creation of explicit policies and reporting requirements to review, audit and evaluate provision. The interest is associated in many countries with the granting by governments of greater autonomy to higher education institutions. This, crucially, comes bound with increased requirements for accountability in the exercise of such power. Enhancing provision, promoting innovation, cultivating exploration and adopting information-led approaches to practice are at the very heart of higher education. As such quality enhancement comes in many guises and is under constant scrutiny. Enhancing Quality in Higher Education looks critically at recent developments in higher education, taking snapshots of changing practices around the world and analysing the varied theoretical perspectives of quality enhancement that are emerging. The opening section draws upon this theoretical base, whilst the second section contextualises it through the analysis of a diverse range of international case studies. The concluding section considers future prospects for the enhancement agenda in the light of the international pressures facing all systems of higher education in the future. Policy will inevitably be shaped by the historical contexts within which national systems are located. The book draws on a wide range of international case studies, examined by a host of contributing experts. The movement towards quality enhancement can be seen as stimulating action at the grassroots of the academy to self-generate improvement. It is a counter to the prevalent view that change in higher education is essentially about the institutional response to increasing societal pressure and state control and, as such, is a welcome contribution to the literature. This comprehensive volume is essential reading for anyone involved in higher education and educational policy.

By bringing together leading experts on quality assurance in higher education from seven countries (from Europe, the USA and South Africa), this volume intends to go several steps further than most publications on the same subject. Containing comprehensive discussion of the most relevant trends in quality assurance regulation, translation and transformation, researchers and policy makers will find an engaged, academic reflection on how quality assurance is embedded in higher education and in a dynamic way to assess its impacts and potential improvements.

One of the key elements in determining the socio-economic significance of education is quality. Quality management plays an integral role in higher education by ensuring that quality benchmarks are being met, thereby attributing to its prestige, increased enrollment, and student success. Quality management policies must be successfully implemented for the institution to thrive. With quality management still in the growing stage, research is needed regarding the applications, challenges, and benefits of these policies within advanced academics. Quality Management Principles and Policies in Higher Education provides emerging research exploring the theoretical aspects of quality management policies and applications within the educational field. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as faculty involvement, administration practices, and critical success factors, this book is ideally designed for educators, administrators, educational consultants, researchers, policymakers, stakeholders, deans, provosts, chancellors, academicians, and students seeking current research on successfully implementing quality management systems in teaching, learning, and administrative processes.

The new focus in learning is on developing the individual's capability. This work looks at this in the context of improving skills, lifelong learning and welfare-to-work. It debates the issues within the setting of institutional strategies, work-based learning, skills development and assessment.

Although initially utilized in business and industrial environments, quality management systems can be adapted into higher education to assess and improve an institution’s standards. These strategies are now playing a vital role in educational areas such as teaching, learning, and institutional-level practices. However, quality management tools and models must be adapted to fit with the culture of higher education. Quality Management Implementation in Higher Education: Practices, Models, and Case Studies is a pivotal reference source that explores the challenges and solutions of designing quality management models in the current educational culture. Featuring research on topics such as Lean Six Sigma, distance education, and student supervision, this book is ideally designed for school board members, administrators, deans, policymakers, stakeholders, professors, graduate students, education professionals, and researchers seeking current research on the applications and success factors of quality management systems in various facets of higher education.