The papers in this book reflect current debates on academic standards and quality assurance, and speak from the perspective of institutional leaders and national quality bodies and higher education researchers. Included are reports on the progress of several international quality initiatives and studies on the impact of external quality assurance upon management and decision making in higher education. Following an introduction by John Brennan, papers include: "Accreditation, Assessment, Anarchy? The Evolution of Academic Quality Assurance Policies in the United States" (David Dill); "Institutional Responses to Quality Assessment in Australia" (Vin Massaro); "Qualifications and Quality in New Zealand" (David Woodhouse); "Evaluation a la Francaise: The CNE" (Marie-Odile Ottenwaelter); "The Balance Between Accountability and Improvement: The Danish Experience" (Christian Thune); "Quality Assurance and Diversity: The Case of England" (Ruth Williams); "Learning from the HEQC Experience" (Roger Brown); "Quality, Standards and Institutional Reciprocity' (David Watson); "Power, Legitimacy and Academic Standards" (Janet Finch); "The Hunting of the Gilt-Edged Degree" (Tony Becher); "Management for Quality: The CRE Programme of Institutional Evaluation: Issues Encountered in the Pilot Phase--1994.5" (Andris Barblan); "The European Pilot Project for Evaluation Quality in Higher Education" (Christian Thune and Andre Starapoli); "Quality Management, Quality Assessment and the Decision-Making Process: The IMHE Project on Institutional Impact" (Tarla Shah); "A Swedish Approach to Quality in Higher Education: The Case of Uppsala University" (Lars Engwall); "A Danish Approach to Quality in Higher Education: The Case of Aalborg University (Palle Rasmussen); and "An Australian Approach to Quality in Higher Education: The Case of Monash University (Gay Baldwin). A glossary of abbreviations is appended. (Many papers contain references.) (CH)