The recent push towards 'quality assurance' classifies universities in
to six bands based on quality of research, teaching, community service
, and processes to improve quality. This paper argues that the individ
ual, rather than university and department, is the appropriate unit of
analysis to make statements about quality. This conjecture is illustr
ated by using one criterion, productivity of publications in Australia
by academics in education, as an index. The productivity of 2048 acad
emics in education across the 32 universities with departments of educ
ation were matched with the 45 000 entries in the Australian Education
Index. The individual highly productive academic had the most critica
l impact on overall productivity and it is suggested that the correct
unit of analysis for quality assurance is more appropriately the indiv
idual and not the department or university.