This article offers evidence on ways in which assessment of student learning outcomes made a difference for some academic institutions in the United States. It offers perspectives on the internal changes that took place, especially within academic programmes. Even after the capacity for assessment was developed, challenges remained in evaluating…

This article discusses how teaching excellence is prescribed by policy-makers and perceived by higher education institutions in the national competition for teaching excellence ("Wettbewerb Exzellente Lehre") in Germany. Teaching excellence has become an important topic around the world. Its importance can be seen in the increase in…

The notion of "quality as transformation" has been widely used in the higher education sector. However, both quality and transformation are elusive terms. There is little research exploring how quality could be equated to transformation in the learning process. This paper will provide an insight into the relationship between quality and…

This article investigates the implementation of a quality assurance system in Georgia as a particular case of "Bologna transplant" in a transitioning country. In particular, the article discusses to what extent new concepts, institutions and models framed as "European" have been institutionalised in Georgia. Based on an outcome…

Implementing change in higher education is complex and challenging and its results are difficult to measure. This article will argue that university senior management can make change happen but it is rarely straightforward and never easy. It reviews the ways in which leaders aiming to enhance practice can implement enhancement activities,…

This article undertakes a review of Australian and international literature and higher education policy in response to the changing nature of university academic boards (also known as academic senates or faculty senates). It shows that governance has become an issue for both the state and for universities and that within this context risk…

Finding a common definition of "quality" in studies of quality and quality improvement in higher education institutions is very important. This study identifies the views of a key stakeholder group, academics, with reference to their beliefs (what is currently occurring) and their attitudes (what ought to be occurring) in relation to quality in…

This article asks whether institutional research could help improve the quality of student engagement by researching at sub-institutional levels such as in courses bridging students from school into higher education. In answer it argues two interacting propositions: one, that student engagement provides useful indicators of quality in higher…

The University of Helsinki, along with the other European universities, is facing challenges for enhancing the quality of teaching and developing quality assurance systems with comparable criteria. To tackle these aims the university started to develop a student feedback system with a solid theoretical feedback and valuable practical implications.…

This article examines the unique challenges facing Kenya's public higher education institutions. It explores the struggle to develop quality and quality assurance mechanisms against a background of rapidly diminishing income, brain drain, political interference and the negative aspects of globalisation. The challenges have consequently led to a…

The renewal of quality in Australian higher education comes at a time of significant change in the external policy framework. Such changes are timely due to the growth of higher education and the emergence of the quality and equity agenda in the context of ongoing decline in public funding. The article provides an overview of current quality…

England is developing a new quality assurance regime that will come into effect in October 2011. A new funding regime will operate from the following year, together with new rules to ease the participation of private higher education providers. This article describes and analyses the new quality and funding regimes. It argues that the greater…

In Finland, quality assurance related to the Bologna process has been adapted to existing systems of higher education at the national level and a form of implementation is also recognised at the level of the higher education institution. In universities, varied outcomes of quality assurance are based on interaction of organisational structures,…

This paper attempts a brief meta-reflection on quality assurance policy and practice in South African higher education, with a focus on methodology. More specifically it seeks to answer the question "What are the effects of the Higher Education Quality Committee's (HEQC) quality assurance technologies on institutional practice and how could they…

This paper assesses the impact on the curricula of undergraduate programmes in Argentina of the quality assurance mechanism implemented by the National Commission for University Evaluation and Accreditation (CONEAU). The paper examines curricula changes in pharmacy, biochemistry and agriculture undergraduate programmes to show the major…