ISSN 1753-9439 Paper 3 Vol 1 No 1 Pages 85 – 121
Quality Management in Higher Education: A Review of International Issues and Practice
A number of environmental forces are driving change within and across countries and their higher education. These changes have served to put the issue of quality management firmly on the agenda of many higher education institutions. The majority of research conducted on higher education quality management has been undertaken within single national contexts despite the fact that higher education is increasingly viewed as an international business. In order to identify international quality management practices, this paper comprises a review of the literature on quality management in higher education. The review encompasses papers published predominantly in educational journals over a ten-year period, between 1996 and 2006. The environmental forces driving change in 34 countries are identified. The paper then examines the quality management approaches adopted in higher education institutions in response to these forces. The review reveals that the most popular response is the testing or implementation of quality management models developed for industry. While there are benefits to be gained from using these models, these are related predominantly to the efficiency and effectiveness of non-academic functions. These models are also reported to encourage a culture of managerialism in higher education institutions. While this approach can be effective in responding to climates of accountability, the effectiveness of these models in managing quality of teaching and learning has been questioned. This review therefore begs the question of whether it is time to rethink our current approaches to quality management in higher education.