A u s t r a l i a n U n i v e r s i t i e s Q u a l i t y A g e n c y

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The Role of QA Agencies in HE in the 21st Century
1st International Conference on Assessing Quality
in HE, Lahore, 11-13 Dec 2006
Dr David Woodhouse Executive Director AUQA
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Briefing Outline

• The Growth in Quality Assurance Systems
• Transnational Developments
• Regional Networks
• Transnational Agencies
• National Issues
• International Issues
• Concluding Observations

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The Growth in QualityAssurance Systems

• The International Network for Quality Assurance
  Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) was formed
  in Hong Kong in 1991 by 18 quality assurance
  agencies.
• Now, after 15 years it has about 150 member
  organisations, around 100 of which are quality
  agencies.

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Reasons for this rapid growth in quality
assurance agencies include

• increased numbers of students, leading to a
  change in the nature of tertiary education and a
  feeling that it is necessary to check explicitly
  that institutional QA procedures are keeping pace
  with the change, as it is more difficult to do
  things well for large groups than for small
  select groups.

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Reasons for this rapid growth in quality
assurance agencies include

• increased numbers of students, so more money,
  both public and private, is being spent on HE,
  leading to an increased desire on the part of all
  those who are paying to ensure that the money is
  being well spent.

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Reasons for this rapid growth in quality
assurance agencies include

• increased government attention to national needs
  for graduates, leading to governments wanting to
  hold HEIs explicitly accountable for the nature
  of the graduates they produce. HE institutions
  have long expected the public to trust them to do
  a good job, but have sometimes failed this trust,
  and the public is now insisting on a higher level
  of external checking.

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Reasons for this rapid growth in quality
assurance agencies include

• increasing demand for HE, leading to increasing
  numbers of private providers, some of dubious
  provenance, leading to a demand for stringent
  external checks.

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Reasons for this rapid growth in quality
assurance agencies include

• in some countries, decreasing micro-management by
  governments of HEIs in return for the
  introduction of an external QA process.

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Reasons for this rapid growth in quality
assurance agencies include

• globalisation, leading to transnational mobility
  of students and educational export, which in turn
  leads to a need to have a national QA process
  that is visible to other countries (for
  educational export, this is akin to export
  quality processes in other industries).

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Transnational Developments
2.1 Regional Networks

• Asia Pacific Quality Network
• (APQN, 2003)
• In all cases, networks are created to share
  information and good practices between QA
  agencies, and increasingly to make use of each
  others judgements about HEIs and their
  operations.

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2.2 Transnational Agencies

• To facilitate mutual recognition of quality
  agencies by each other, INQAAHE has set down a
  set of Guidelines of Good Practice for agencies
  themselves.

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2.3 National Issues
Some of the issues related to HE that concern
many national governments are

• The meaning and purpose of HE does it continue
  to be HE if the number of students increases?
  Where is the boundary between HE and technical
  education?

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2.3 National Issues

• Funding, including sources of increased funds
  accountability for the funds value-for-money
  (whether government money or students money)

• National development - economic and social and
  the role of teaching and research in this

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2.3 National Issues

• Credit transfer, including student mobility and
  recognition, both during and after study
  qualifications frameworks

• Standards and ranking of institutions and programs

• For-profit education providers.

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2.4 International Issues
Issues in the second category are
multi-nationally-oriented and/or multi-nationally
determined, and include

• Export of education What considerations are
  relevant to the sale of HE abroad? Education as
  trade what are the implications of the General
  Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)?

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2.4 International Issues

• Import of education What considerations are
  relevant to importing foreign HE? How do we know
  whether it is culturally or academically
  appropriate for our society?

• Electronic modes of education What foreign HE is
  coming, unbidden and unmonitored, into our
  country? On-line education. Flexible learning.

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2.4 International Issues

• Borderless or transnational education Who is
  responsible for education that crosses national
  borders when quality agencies are mainly
  national?
• Cross-border recognition of qualifications for
  work and study This includes recognition of
  partial credit towards completing a qualification
  at another institution recognition of a complete
  qualification for further study elsewhere and
  recognition of qualifications for licensing and
  practice.

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2.4 International Issues

• What do we know about the qualifications of
  immigrants? Conversely, can graduates of
  institutions in our country get jobs or do
  further study abroad? Bologna Process.
• Bogus institutions (degree mills) and trivial
  programs how can we police and deal with these
  to protect people from being deceived?

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Concluding Observations

• There are (or can be) disadvantages in setting
  up a quality agency. It is incontrovertible that
  it represents extra work for the HEIs, so the
  question is whether the benefits outweigh this.

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Concluding Observations

• The benefits of having a quality agency easily
  outweigh the drawbacks. The outline above shows
  that, now and for the foreseeable future, the
  lack of a quality agency would seriously hinder a
  countrys participation in global activities.
  More positively, a quality agency can provide

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• independent validation of good performance,
• independent consultation for improvement,
• incentives for self-inspection and improvement,
• a basis for comparison,
• consumer protection, and
• accountability.

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Concluding Observations
In summary, the future of quality assurance in
higher education is as follows

• all or almost all countries will have one or more
  national quality agencies
• being part of such a QA system will be essential
  for any institution to be credible
• these agencies will increasingly operate
  internationally

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• they will increasingly collaborate and recognise
  each others actions and decisions
• some significant international agencies may arise
• quality agencies will not be immutable, but will
  change character in step with the system (eg from
  capacity-building, through rigorous accreditation
  to light-touch auditing).

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Discussion or Questions?
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Further information aboutAUQAhttp//www.auqa.e
du.au
APQNhttp//www.apqn.org
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David Woodhouse Executive Director, AUQA
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