Quality assessment and institutional change: Experiences from 14 countries

The paper draws on an international study of the effects of national and in stitutional quality management systems on higher education institutions in 14 countries. The study was undertaken by the authors on behalf of the prog ramme for Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE) of the Organi sation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Over the last decade, almost all European countries have established nation al systems for the assessment of quality in higher education. Similar devel opments can be found in many other parts of the world. In most countries, t hese developments have been largely sponsored by the state even if the nati onal quality agencies so formed generally have a significant degree of oper ational autonomy and mainly use a form of peer review as their primary asse ssment method. Drawing on the IMHE study, the paper presents a conceptual model of the rel ationships between quality management and institutional change in higher ed ucation which takes into account variations in the national and institution al contexts in which quality management and assessment takes place as well as differences in the methods used. The impact of quality assessment is con sidered in terms of rewards/incentives, policies/structures and cultures of institutions. The paper argues that central to the establishment of quality management an d assessment systems, whether national or institutional are questions of po wer and values. One of the central questions which the paper explores is th e extent to which quality management represents a challenge to the intrinsi c value systems of the academic profession and is a mechanism through which extrinsic values of society and economy are given greater weight in academ ic institutional life. Changes in the balance of power within academic life between system, institutional, basic unit and individual levels are explor ed as part of more general processes of institutional change.