The politics of quality assurance: The Australian quality assurance program for higher education, 1993-1995

Using interest group theory and the idea of public policy development and a pplication following sequential stages, this paper explores how key decisio ns were made about the establishment and implementation of the controversia l national quality assurance program for higher education that operated in Australia from 1993 to 1995. The paper explains how Australia came to intro duce a quality assurance program that differed substantially from those est ablished in other OECD countries.