Challenges for quality assurance in higher education: the regulatory turn

Evolution of quality assurance in higher education from INQAAHE GGP to ISGs − Are quality assurance agencies in Asia ready to the emerging modules?

“…Although it will take time to measure the actual impact of the new guidelines, evolution of QA cannot be stopped. As King (2018)…”

“…With a focus shift from “one-fit-all” module to a variety of QA dimensions, the INQAAHE ISGs has revealed that EQAAs should be more proactive to reflect upon diversification of higher education. When institutional differentiation and diversity continues to challenge QA, one of possible solutions is to “induce regulatory competitions to match such developments” (King, 2018, p. 39). Nevertheless, EQAAs are encouraged to adopt a new compliance theory to reflect varying stakeholders' need by developing “better regulations programs”, such as a risk-based approach.…”

“…During the period, INQAAHE was formed in 1991 in Hong Kong by 18 EQAAs. Moving into the 21st century, an evolution of QA has gone faster with a focus of "accountability" in response to several global manifestations in higher education, including massification, internationalization, and marketization, privatization as well as domination of global rankings (Harvey, 2018;King, 2018). When the pandemic outbroke, global QA systems started to experience such a disruption over their traditional external review modes and standards, "which led to the need to reimagine, re-invent and redesign the diverse aspects of higher education to enhance relevance, trust and credibility in performance" (INQAAHE, 2021, p. 1).…”

The Accountability and Transparency Agenda: Emerging Issues in the Global Era

“…Once higher education is recognised and promoted as the "engine of the economy" (Castells 1996), then how it is governed and managed, along with matters of performance and productivity, necessarily comes to the fore. As King (2018) says, "the very centrality of higher education outcomes for national competitiveness and prosperity and the taxpayer and consumer funds that are deployed for support require that universities and colleges are subject to levels of public scrutiny." Institutions regularly engage in benchmarking while countries look for international comparability and solutions as they seek to "develop policies to enhance individuals' social and economic prospects, provide incentives for greater efficiency in schooling, and help to mobilise resources to meet rising demands" (OECD 2017, 3).…”

“…These actions have been underpinned by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) and the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) and formalised in the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance across the European Higher Education Area. Over the years, a meta-structure (Maassen and Stensaker 2011) has emerged, "reinforced by the international tide of "new governance" that enthused national governments…[and which] stressed transparency, accountability, and value-for-money for taxpayer-funded expenditure" far beyond the European Union (King 2018).…”