External Quality Assurance Model in HEIs: 3-D ACS Framework

Abstract

Based on pre-existing literature, accreditation, customer satisfaction, and education for sustainable development are essential perspectives in measuring tertiary institutions' quality. A preliminary survey was conducted to identify important aspects of determining higher education quality. The results showed the accreditation requirements had already covered almost all aspects; however, it lacked student satisfaction and sustainable development education. The previous studies showed each perspective had been evaluated separately and has advantages and disadvantages. This paper proposes a novel quality framework consisting of three crucial perspectives: Accreditation ranking, Customer satisfaction, and education for sustainable development, which will be correlated with each other to obtain a comprehensive and holistic measure of the quality for a higher education institution. It is called the 3-D ACS Framework. This paper only presents the surface of the 3-D ACS Framework concept. Henceforth, in-depth research must be carried out to provide a more comprehensive concept of measuring higher education quality.