This article describes the synthesis of the NCATE PDS Standards, the NAPDS Nine Essentials and the CAEP Standards to create a rubric that can be used to help PDS stakeholders develop, refine, and evaluate their partnerships. Implications and future directions on how to use the rubric are also shared.

This study analysed accreditation exercises of universities undergraduate programs in Nigeria from 2001-2013. Accreditation is a quality assurance mechanism to ensure that undergraduate programs offered in Nigeria satisfies benchmark minimum academic standards for producing graduates with requisite skills for employability. The study adopted the…

Benchmarking has traditionally been viewed as a way to compare data only; however, its utilisation as a more investigative, research-informed process to add rigor to decision-making processes at the institutional level is gaining momentum in the higher education sector. Indeed, with recent changes in the Australian quality environment from the…

Purpose: This paper aims to focus on the changing nature of quality assurance systems within the sixth form college sector. Design/methodology/approach: Ten sixth form colleges were surveyed across England and staff from varying levels within college hierarchies questioned about how quality assurance systems were implemented. Research involved…

A critical step in the professionalization of the field of leadership education (Komives, 2011) and the evolution of leadership as a field of study (International Leadership Association [ILA], 2009) is the development of best practices, standards of practice, and guidelines for assessment of quality in program delivery and accomplishment of…

This paper describes quality enhancement (QE) focused response to the 2006 National Student Survey (NSS) by a post-1992 Higher Education Institution. Recognising the increasing importance of the NSS to a wide range of stakeholders, the University established a task team to explore, from a QE perspective, why the institution received particular…

Assessing student attainment in the major field of study is increasingly important to employers and accrediting bodies alike. Construction and manufacturing firms do not like engineers who design faulty bridges and airplanes. Marketing firms want to hire students who understand the difference between a niche market and a global market. School…

Over the last decade the proportion of students in higher education obtaining aggregate marks over 60 per cent has steadily increased. Whilst standards of learning and teaching may have improved due to the existence of quality assurance agencies and the efforts of individual higher education institutions a significant factor remains that could…

The self-study has been increasingly used as an aid to accrediting reviews but has rarely been used as a tool for ongoing systematic internal quality assurance. Attention to the purposes and functions, the processes, and the dynamics of self-studies so used can yield great benefit for modest cost. (Author/MLW)

In response to legislation eliminating race and gender as factors in admissions decisions, the University of California instituted a series of short- and long-range outreach strategies to recruit disadvantaged students, increase the number of underrepresented minorities in the eligibility pool, change the culture of secondary schools to promote…

Selected data drawn from national sources are statistically refined to construct a microcomputer-based model for monitoring academic quality and simulating the effects of management decisions. The method, illustrated for doctoral institutions here, can be used for colleges at any level, across institutions, and over time. (MSE)

We cannot continue to define academic quality using standards set from a limited perspective and expect students from diverse backgrounds and cultures to meet them. To increase minority participation in graduate schools, institutions should better understand minority standardized test performance and better prepare minority undergraduates for…

Despite recent rejection of proposals for national reform of college accreditation, a well-established system of regional, voluntary self-regulation offers the best vehicle for correcting imbalance in educational quality assurance. The new Council for Higher Education Accreditation can help restore public faith in voluntary self-regulation by…

American philanthropy, by local and national foundations, corporations, and wealthy individuals, has played many important roles in K-12 education: creating new schools, underwriting research, funding scholarships, testing hypotheses, generating new curricula, invoking ideals, setting agendas, bolstering training, and building a case for policy…

Most administrators approach program reduction as a budget issue; in reality, it is a governance and planning issue of major importance for the 1980s. Steps in a planning process for program discontinuance (including pitfalls) are described, based on a national study supported by the Exxon Foundation. (Author/LB)