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Quality Assurance in Education
ISSN : 0968-4883
Article publication date: 4 February 2020
Issue publication date: 4 February 2020
This paper aims to investigate how global university rankings interact with quality and quality assurance in higher education along the two lines of investigation, that is, from the perspective of their relationship with the concept of quality (assurance) and the development of quality assurance policies in higher education, with particular emphasis on accreditation as the prevalent quality assurance approach.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper firstly conceptualises quality and quality assurance in higher education and critically examines the methodological construction of the four selected world university rankings and their references to “quality”. On this basis, it answers the two “how” questions: How is the concept of quality (assurance) in higher education perceived by world university rankings and how do they interact with quality assurance and accreditation policies in higher education? Answers are provided through the analysis of different documentary sources, such as academic literature, glossaries, international studies, institutional strategies and other documents, with particular focus on official websites of international ranking systems and individual higher education institutions, media announcements, and so on.
The paper argues that given their quantitative orientation, it is quite problematic to perceive world university rankings as a means of assessing or assuring the institutional quality. Like (international) accreditations, they may foster vertical differentiation of higher education systems and institutions. Because of their predominant accountability purpose, they cannot encourage improvements in the quality of higher education institutions.
Practical implications
Research results are beneficial to different higher education stakeholders (e.g. policymakers, institutional leadership, academics and students), as they offer them a comprehensive view on rankings’ ability to assess, assure or improve the quality in higher education.
Originality/value
The existing research focuses principally either on interactions of global university rankings with the concept of quality or with processes of quality assurance in higher education. The comprehensive and detailed analysis of their relationship with both concepts thus adds value to the prevailing scholarly debates.
- Global university rankings
- Accreditation
- Higher education institutions
- Quality assurance
Hauptman Komotar, M. (2020), "Discourses on quality and quality assurance in higher education from the perspective of global university rankings", Quality Assurance in Education , Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 78-88. https://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-05-2019-0055
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UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
Quality assurance policies in the european higher education area: a comparative case study.
Joanna Maria Jezierska , University of Nevada Las Vegas
Degree Type
Dissertation
Educational Leadership
Bob Ackerman, Committee Chair
First Committee Member
Gerald Kops
Second Committee Member
Vicki Rosser
Graduate Faculty Representative
LeAnn Putney
Number of Pages
European tertiary education became an important topic of the main leaders of the world academia a decade ago, when 29 European countries voluntarily signed the Bologna Declaration of 1999. This intergovernmental European initiative of educational reform, known as the Bologna Process, defines a common framework for higher education systems, and encourages the development of quality assurance within and between institutions of higher education. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the implementation process of quality assurance policy, The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, in two European countries: the United Kingdom and Poland, including the quality assurance policy adaptation process on national level, modifications, and its impact on changes in national education systems and institutions in both countries. The institutional quality assurance policies of the University of Cambridge and Uniwersytet Jagieloñski were evaluated and discussed here as well. This qualitative research followed a single comparative case study design with embedded multiple units of analysis guided by Fischer's theoretical framework for policy evaluation. The researcher presented a detailed quality assurance policies' analysis by utilizing event mapping, content analysis, and modified for this study, the Complementary Analysis Research Method Application (CARMA) as the data instruments. By examining and comparing the quality assurance policies, and their implementation processes, the researcher provided a broad perspective of different approaches to educational reform in European countries, their obstacles and successful initiatives. The study unfolded a picture of a regular, secure, and momentarily resistant approach in the UK, as one of the initiators of the reform, compared to Polish fast paced movement, as a participant, towards the European Higher Education Area. Despite diverse approach and progress made in each examined case, both countries still demonstrate a need for more proceedings and changes, especially on a national level. By evaluating the aforementioned policies in further detail, the quality assurance's significance was emphasized as a link that connects all remaining objectives of the Bologna Process, and set the background to harmonize diverse education systems in institutions of higher education in Europe, and, what has been already explored, in other countries world-wide.
Bologna Process; Educational policy analysis; European Higher Education Area; International education; Poland; Quality assurance; United Kingdom
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University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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Jezierska, Joanna Maria, "Quality assurance policies in the European Higher Education Area: A comparative case study" (2009). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones . 460. http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/1392610
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Assessing Quality Assurance Practices in Institutions of Higher Learnings
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Analysing Quality Assurance in Higher Education: Proposals for a Conceptual Framework and Methodological Implications
Cite this chapter.
- Juan F. Perellon PhD 6
Part of the book series: Higher Education Dynamics ((HEDY,volume 20))
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This chapter sets up the basis of a conceptual framework for the comparative study of quality assurance in higher education. It approaches quality assurance as a policy domain and looks into the policies that are formulated and implemented therein. The objective pursued by the construction of such a framework is to check for crossnational policy convergence and the extent to which national idiosyncrasies still play a role – and, if so, of which nature – in the current context of international harmonisation. More generally, the proposed framework aims at providing a range of tools to understand cross-national convergence in quality assurance policy, the mechanisms through which this convergence takes place, the components of the quality assurance policy that converge and those that, on the contrary, do not.
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Perellon, J.F. (2007). Analysing Quality Assurance in Higher Education: Proposals for a Conceptual Framework and Methodological Implications. In: Westerheijden, D.F., Stensaker, B., Rosa, M.J. (eds) Quality Assurance In Higher Education. Higher Education Dynamics, vol 20. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6012-0_6
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