Quality Work in Higher Education


Book Description

This book focuses on quality work in higher education, and examines the relationship between the organizational and pedagogical dimensions of quality work in higher education. Bringing together different disciplinary traditions, including educational science, sociology, and organisational studies, it addresses the following principal research question: How is quality work carried out in higher education? The book addresses a wide variety of academic, administrative and leadership practices that are involved in quality work in higher education institutions. The chapters in this book examine core issues crucial in the design and content of study programs, such as modes of teaching, learning and curricula design, as well as institutional practices regarding assessment and quality enhancement. The introductory and concluding chapter present an overarching focus on quality work as a lens to analyse intentional activities within higher education institutions directed at how study programmes and courses are designed, governed, and operated.




Developing Evaluative Judgement in Higher Education


Book Description

A key skill to be mastered by graduates today is the ability to assess the quality of their own work, and the work of others. This book demonstrates how the higher education system might move away from a culture of unhelpful grades and rigid marking schemes, to focus instead on forms of feedback and assessment that develop the critical skills of its students. Tracing the historical and sociocultural development of evaluative judgement, and bringing together evidence and practice design from a range of disciplines, this book demystifies the concept of evaluative judgement and shows how it might be integrated and encouraged in a range of pedagogical contexts. Contributors develop various understandings of this often poorly understood concept and draw on their experience to showcase a toolbox of strategies including peer learning, self-regulated learning, self-assessment and the use of technologies. A key text for those working with students in the higher education system, Developing Evaluative Judgement in Higher Education will give readers the knowledge and confidence required to promote these much-needed skills when working with individual students and groups.




Quality Management Implementation in Higher Education: Practices, Models, and Case Studies


Book Description

Although initially utilized in business and industrial environments, quality management systems can be adapted into higher education to assess and improve an institution’s standards. These strategies are now playing a vital role in educational areas such as teaching, learning, and institutional-level practices. However, quality management tools and models must be adapted to fit with the culture of higher education. Quality Management Implementation in Higher Education: Practices, Models, and Case Studies is a pivotal reference source that explores the challenges and solutions of designing quality management models in the current educational culture. Featuring research on topics such as Lean Six Sigma, distance education, and student supervision, this book is ideally designed for school board members, administrators, deans, policymakers, stakeholders, professors, graduate students, education professionals, and researchers seeking current research on the applications and success factors of quality management systems in various facets of higher education.




Improving Quality in American Higher Education


Book Description

An ambitious, comprehensive reimagining of 21st century higher education Improving Quality in American Higher Education outlines the fundamental concepts and competencies society demands from today's college graduates, and provides a vision of the future for students, faculty, and administrators. Based on a national, multidisciplinary effort to define and measure learning outcomes—the Measuring College Learning project—this book identifies 'essential concepts and competencies' for six disciplines. These essential concepts and competencies represent efforts towards articulating a consensus among faculty in biology, business, communication, economics, history, and sociology—disciplines that account for nearly 40 percent of undergraduate majors in the United States. Contributions from thought leaders in higher education, including Ira Katznelson, George Kuh, and Carol Geary Schneider, offer expert perspectives and persuasive arguments for the need for greater clarity, intentionality, and quality in U.S. higher education. College faculty are our best resource for improving the quality of undergraduate education. This book offers a path forward based on faculty perspectives nationwide: Clarify program structure and aims Articulate high-quality learning goals Rigorously measure student progress Prioritize higher order competencies and disciplinarily grounded conceptual understandings A culmination of over two years of efforts by faculty and association leaders from six disciplines, this book distills the national conversation into a delineated set of fundamental ideas and practices, and advocates for the development and use of rigorous assessment tools that are valued by faculty, students, and society. Improving Quality in American Higher Education brings faculty voices to the fore of the conversation and offers an insightful look at the state of higher education, and a realistic strategy for better serving our students.




Quality in Higher Education


Book Description

The concept of quality in higher education is by no means a new one. By one set of definitions or another, colleges and universities throughout the world have always held the pursuit of excellence as their primary goal. Why then has the quality approach, developed and popularized in industry, and how increasingly applied in health care and government, receiving so much attention in higher education at this moment? What does this perspective add to the approaches to excellence with which they have long embraced?These are the two primary questions that this book seeks to address. Chapters and contributors include: "The New Productivity" by Peter F. Drucker; "World War n and the Quality Movement" by J. M. Juran; "The Quality Approach to Higher Education: Context of Concepts for Change" by Brent Ruben; "The Big Questions in Higher Education Today" by L. Edwin Coate; "An American Approach to Quality" by Marilyn R. Zuckerman and Lewis J. Hatala; "Quality hi Higher Education: Critical Issues in Definition and Assessment" by Brent Ruben; and "Ten Areas for Future Research in Total Quality Management" by A. Blanton Godfrey. The volume is graced with an opening essay by Francis L. Lawrence, president of Rutgers University.Higher education is in the public spotlight today due to the many challenges it now faces: rising tuition costs; frustration about a tight job market for graduates; calls for increased faculty productivity; concerns about political correctness; and criticisms regarding the use of grant and research funds, among others. Quality in Higher Education is a particularly timely book that will greatly benefit educators, university administrators, students, and sociologists, and all those who are interested in higher education today.




The Rise of Quality Assurance in Asian Higher Education


Book Description

The Rise of Quality Assurance in Asian Higher Education provides information on the well researched quality assurance frameworks, processes, standards, and internal and external monitoring that have taken place around the globe. However, in Asia, where higher education has witnessed rapid growth, and is also contributing significantly to international education which is benefited by many developed countries, this data has not been readily available. In recent years, governments in Asia have made significant investment with an aim of creating education hubs to ensure that higher education is internationally competitive. This book examines the developments in higher education quality assurance in eleven Asian countries, providing systematic insights into national quality assurance arrangements and also examining the different approaches governments in Asia have implemented based on social and economic contexts. - Includes chapters from eleven countries that examine quality assurance arrangements - Explores untold case studies of countries, such as Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, India, and others - Examines higher education context, quality assurance arrangements, effectiveness, challenges, and international quality assurance in Asia - Offers contributions from leading scholars and practitioners who are working in higher education in Asia - Provides engagement for research students




Quality Assurance in Higher Education


Book Description

By bringing together leading experts on quality assurance in higher education from seven countries (from Europe, the USA and South Africa), this volume intends to go several steps further than most publications on the same subject. Containing comprehensive discussion of the most relevant trends in quality assurance regulation, translation and transformation, researchers and policy makers will find an engaged, academic reflection on how quality assurance is embedded in higher education and in a dynamic way to assess its impacts and potential improvements.




Capability and Quality in Higher Education


Book Description

The new focus in learning is on developing the individual's capability. This work looks at this in the context of improving skills, lifelong learning and welfare-to-work. It debates the issues within the setting of institutional strategies, work-based learning, skills development and assessment.




Global Perspectives on Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Higher Education Institutions


Book Description

Quality accreditation in higher education institutions (HEIs) is currently a buzzword. The need to maintain high-quality education standards is a critical requirement for HEIs to remain competitive in the market and for government and regulatory bodies to ensure the quality standards of programs offered. From being an implicit requirement that is internally addressed, quality assurance activities become an explicit requirement that is regularly audited and appraised by national and international accreditation agencies. HEIs are voluntarily integrating quality management systems (QMS), institutional and program-specific, in response to the political and competitive environment in which it exists. Through its higher education department or by creating non-profitable accreditation bodies, many governments have implemented a quality framework for licensing HEIs and invigilates its adherence based on which accreditation statuses are granted for HEIs. Global Perspectives on Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Higher Education Institutions provides a comprehensive framework for HEIs to address quality assurance and quality accreditation requirements and serves as a practical tool to develop and deploy well-defined quality management systems in higher education. The book focuses on the critical aspects of quality assurance; the need to develop a concise and agile vision, mission, values, and graduate attributes; and to develop a system that effectively aligns the various activities of the HEI to the attainment of the strategic priorities listed in the institutional plans. The chapters each cover the various facets of the quality assurance framework and accreditation agencies' requirements with practical examples of each. This book is useful for HEI administrators, quality assurance specialists in HEIs, heads of academic departments, internal auditors, external auditors, and other practitioners of quality, along with stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in quality assurance and accreditation in higher education.




The Dialogue between Higher Education Research and Practice


Book Description

This book addresses the interface between research, policy and practice in the fields of Higher Education Management and Institutional Research. It provides an overview of the current state of research and best managerial practice in the field of HE Management, so vital to the well-being of higher education, and currently at a crucial stage of evolution in so many countries of Europe and the rest of the world.