Over the last decade, universities have paid increasing attention to stakeholder needs, which include the needs and expectations of students. To identify student needs and expectations, tertiary institutions have primarily employed the mechanism of evaluation surveys. In recent years, international research has shown falling survey response rates…

The purpose of the study is to describe the evaluation and quality assurance practices employed in the basic units of Finnish and Italian universities and analyse the impact of the Bologna process on quality assessment. The data consist of interviews (n=30) conducted in Finland and Italy. The results suggest that: (1) evaluation and quality…

This paper deals with the potential failure of evaluation in Italian universities and shows how it risks slipping towards ritual behaviour. The study uses empirical data collected with a closed answer questionnaire and a series of open interviews with top-level university representatives and evaluators to examine the real and potential influence…

This paper describes the findings of an Australian Government-funded research project that sought to investigate the management of transnational English-language teaching programmes in the higher education sector with a view to identifying those activities that both facilitate and inhibit good practice as defined in the paper. Using data obtained…

There are lots of definitions of quality, and also of quality in education. Garvin (1984) discerns five approaches: the transcendental approach, the product-oriented approach, the customer-oriented approach, the manufacturing-oriented approach and the value-for-money approach. Harvey and Green (1993) give five interrelated concepts of quality as:…

Over the past few years, marketisation-focused public policies have significantly transformed higher education systems worldwide. In developing countries that do not have public universities, there has been a reduction of public financing and the expansion of private institutions. In Brazil, one of the main developing countries in the world…

Benchmarking satisfaction over time can be extremely valuable where a consistent feedback cycle is employed. However, the value of benchmarking over a long period of time has not been analysed in depth. What is the value of benchmarking this type of data over time? What does it tell us about a feedback and action cycle? What impact does a study of…

This article debates whether the concept of satisfaction as a measurement of quality in higher education supports the goal of enhancing transformative learning. As higher education is about transforming people, not just their knowledge, it is argued that learning challenges the identities of students, and even questions their personal integrity.…

This paper examines the notion of the student as a customer in a university, focusing on the perceptions of academic staff. Changes in the higher education sector in recent years have significantly reduced the differences between universities and other types of organisations and it has been argued that students have become "consumers" of higher…

Factors influencing the successful introduction of portfolios are described. A portfolio is a purposeful collection of all kinds of documents and other artefacts that together give an impression of how tasks were fulfilled and how competence has developed. A portfolio can also contain reflections and plans for future development. Although…

In the UK and elsewhere, higher education is increasingly and controversially being construed, especially within political discourse, as a marketised commodity service to paying customers. Notions of quality, broadly construed, will be of central significance in the development of new markets in higher education in the UK and beyond. Drawing upon…

This paper proposes a practical framework for key skills that can be used or adapted for use in any discipline at university level. The paper begins by reviewing the arguments for and against integrating key skills into higher education. Although the skills agenda has been widely criticised on several fronts, this paper argues that key skills need…

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…

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a poor fit with higher education and can only be made to fit by major reshaping either of TQM to a more appropriate methodology (and hence not TQM), or of higher education to an image of organisation that fits TQM. The paper revisits longstanding concerns about multiple aspects of TQM from a critical systems…

This paper critically examines the outcomes of quality assurance programme reviews on the three campuses of the University of the West Indies (UWI) with an emphasis on the factors that impact upon the quality of students' learning experiences. In establishing the context of the discussion, the authors describe the quality assurance system of the…