The paper outlines the history of the different uses of 'quality' in higher education. Emphasis is given to the United Kingdom, but consideration is also given to a range of international contexts. Three different uses of 'academic quality' are identified (the state-driven, sector-derived, and the traditional academic uses) and their relationship…

This book explores Learning Analytics (LA) programmes and practices in Malaysia as well as looking at the underlying forces, dilemmas and policy challenges for quality assurance in higher education institutions (HEIs). This chapters provide a comprehensive discussion of trends in academic quality assurance in higher education. It articulates a…

This study explores the meta-conceptualization of the high-quality education system in China from multiple perspectives. It intends to analyze the current literature related to the construction of high-quality education system, sort out and summarize its connotation, characteristics, elements, problems, and countermeasures, to deepen the cognition…

Purpose: This study aims to visualize and map the emerging themes in the field of quality of teaching and learning in higher education. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a bibliometric approach to review studies published between 2000 and 2021. The leading trends in authorship, publications and countries were analyzed using the Web of…

Quality assurance (QA) is considered a critical component in higher education institutions (HEIs) and their academic programmes in the twenty-first century. Despite significant investments to enhance QA in HEIs, contemporary research suggests that QA systems may not always meet the expectations of HEI stakeholders. The literature review suggests…

The global impact of COVID in 2020 is forcing higher education institutions in many countries to adopt a hybrid model of education. The shift to blended education has been trending globally. However, the change in pedagogy has reduced the quality of students' learning experience and prevented them from deep learning. Therefore, the current study…

Time is an omnipresent key dimension in everyone's life, yet academic time has only recently found scholarly attention. The temporal aspects of quality assurance, in particular, are basically unchartered territory. Taking a chronopolitical perspective, this article aims to close the gap, by critically examining how temporalities are firmly…

As higher education institutions increasingly expand their online course offerings, the role of instructional designers in enhancing instructional quality and effectiveness becomes critical. This study surveyed practicing instructional designers to explore the specific tasks they perform performed in higher education and identifies factors that…

Tutoring promotes student achievement, academic independence, and the reduction of anxiety. While ample studies support tutoring for enhancing student success, few address how to evaluate tutoring. This quandary led to research in building and testing a meta-model that identified the hallmarks of one-on-one high-quality online tutoring.…

Adoption of the "Double World-Class" policy in China has led to substantial changes in the country's higher education governance system. Thus, to examine whether any undesired effects have occurred, in this study, we conducted document analysis along with purposive interviews to gather pertinent data on one local university that has been…

In response to global competition in higher education, university rankings have been developed. These have been interpreted as indicating the regions and countries with the most prestigious and competitive higher education institutions. The rankings are viewed as important in many countries, but their role is ambiguous and contested in the Nordic…

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) follows a set of submission rules. Here we analyse whether the submission rules of the impact element arguably shaped the submission sizes of the submitting units -- a group of academics researching on a specific subject area in higher education providers -- to the REF in 2014. The number of impact case…

In this study, we examined articles related to academic quality assurance research in the sub-Saharan African (SSA) higher education context to identify internal and external mechanisms put in place to improve the quality of education. To achieve the objective, the study reviewed published studies to bring to light the standard quality benchmark…

Saudi Arabia, as delineated in its Vision 2030, has made increasing the participation of the private sector the utmost priority in the development. One of the key policies that Saudi is pursuing for greater private sector involvement is the privatization of government sectors. Parallel to this, higher education is no exception to this trend. A…

"Quality work" is a growing area of interest in higher education research, reflecting a broader political and scientific concern with how universities and colleges work with educational quality. However, the characteristics and theoretical underpinnings of the concept are understudied, and we have scarce knowledge about how different…