Understanding Quality in Higher Education 1

Autor(en)

Lee Harvey, Jürgen Kohler, Urs Bucher, Andrée Sursock

Preis

15,99 € (149 Seiten, PDF)

Inhalt

• Understanding Quality

  Lee Harvey

  Five different conceptions of quality are examined in some detail: excellence, consistency, fitness for purpose, value for money and transformative. These are related to different notions of standards: academic, competence, service and organisational. There is a brief examination of the way each is assured. It is argued that transformative quality is a metaconcept that captures the essence of quality.

• “Quality” in Higher Education

  Jürgen Kohler

  The article analyses the concept of “quality” in higher education with regard to various contexts and aspects: as a positive and negative buzz word; as a vehicle to transport specific political objectives; as a matter of choice between a number of concepts. The article also undertakes to describe the development of aims, tools, and effects of both internal and external quality assurance criteria and processes in the European Higher Education Area. It eventually broadens the view on “quality” to institution-based concepts and prerequisites of quality and quality assurance by focussing on links to quality culture and good governance, and tries to sketch probable further developments in terms of opportunities and challenges.

• How a Culture of Excellence Becomes Reality – Making the Invisible Visible

  Urs Bucher

  In order to address the changing needs of stakeholders in higher education institutions, teachers as well as the administrative staff need to reflect on and strive for continuous improvement. The organisation as a whole, represented by its leaders, plays an important role in motivating its employees to adapt an appropriate attitude. Simple principles, although not always easy to put into effect, help develop a culture of Excellence.

• European Frameworks for Quality

  Andrée Sursock

  This paper examines the articulation between the Bologna process and the Lisbon objectives. It argues, based on the experience of the European University Association in the field of quality, that in order to bring coherence to the objectives of the two policies, external quality assurance must examine the capacity of higher education institutions to change and the robustness of their internal quality arrangements.

• Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the EHEA

  Content and Consequences, Pros and Cons

  Jürgen Kohler

  The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area contain key features and descriptors for a shared understanding of what are considered to be tasks, criteria, and procedures of quality assurance in the ‘Bologna’ higher education area. This article provides an introduction to this issue and to the standards and guidelines pertaining to it, analyses the interests and purposes linked to these standards and guidelines, describes the concrete consequences to be drawn from these rules, and finally makes a tentative judgment on pros and cons.