This article aims to provide a critical examination of the concept of "learning environment" following the increased attention to the concept among educational researchers and policy makers. Based on a review of the literature, the current article identifies how the concept of learning environment is being researched and how the research conducted…

The article analyses how quality management is understood in higher education research. By reviewing a number of academic contributions addressing quality management issues in "Quality in Higher Education" from 1995-2008, the article identifies central concepts associated with quality management, discusses whether there are commonalities to be…

A common characteristic in many quality assurance schemes around the world is their implicit and often narrowly formulated understanding of how organisational change is to take place as a result of the process. By identifying some of the underlying assumptions related to organisational change in current quality assurance schemes, the aim of this…

The role and function of external quality assurance is of great importance for the development of an internal quality culture in higher education. Research has shown that external quality assurance can stimulate but also create obstacles for institutional improvement. To strike a balance between improvement and accountability is, therefore, a key…

Discusses the impact of external quality monitoring (EQM) on higher education and identifies areas in which changes have taken place as a result of such external initiatives. Suggests that the lack of effects related directly to quality improvement should not be conceived as an EQM design error, but rather as a misconception of how organizational…

Evaluates the use of student, graduate, and employer user surveys in guiding change processes within higher education programs in Denmark based on two surveys of and interviews with Danish university rectors and pro-rectors. Rectors report that, in practice, surveys provide only limited amounts of useful information and are thus less influential…