Considering accountability, affordability, and access through the experiences in Chile, East Asia, Australia, Croatia, and the United States offers a clear reminder that trends and issues in higher education are often more similar across national contexts than they are distinct. Across higher education, institutions and systems are responding to…

This chapter highlights some of the issues that need to be addressed when operating international campuses and provides a list of questions to help guide relevant institutional research. (Lists 8 online resources.)

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)

Quality assurance in higher education is in the interest of all concerned. Universities must formulate objectives and goals, but attainment of them requires external assessment and cooperation of all parties. Assessment must be based on clear and attainable expectations, aim at improvement, provide insight into quality, contribute to institutional…

This article examines strategies to foster and evaluate research and scholarship in Hong Kong's higher education sector. It addresses the definition of performance indicators, the role of governmental policy initiatives, performance indicators in the academic research context, possible research indicators, application of indicators, and other…

Benchmarking, associated with quality management philosophy currently common in higher education institutions, identifies processes considered to be the standard to emulate. A benchmark student administrative services area represents the best related processes brought together in one institution. A benchmark institution is described. It is argued…

Discusses the complexity facing South African researchers in higher education as they try to overcome the heritage of the old, fragmented higher education system. Necessary paradigm shifts are identified, as are focus areas for improving the quality of South African higher education research at both national and institutional levels. (DB)

Total Quality Management methods can build on conventional performance indicators to enhance their usefulness in monitoring and improving quality and effectiveness in higher education institutions. Experience with these methods at colleges and universities, particularly in several academic and administrative areas at Pennsylvania State University,…

The British experience of nationwide research quality assessments and new measures to improve accountability are described. Consequences for the higher education system and for individual institutions are examined. Three national assessments of the quality of research in the United Kingdom (U.K.) in 1986, 1989, and 1992 have provided a standard…

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…

Two pilot programs designed to improve and maintain quality in European higher education are described and compared: an audit of universities' procedures for quality assurance; and an assessment of programs of study, including teaching and learning, student characteristics, staff, facilities, and quality management. Both include institutional…

New roles for college institutional researchers in the area of data administration and management that have resulted from developments in computer technology are reviewed. These developments include easily accessed databases, user-friendly software, and powerful and inexpensive hardware. The growing demand for data, combined with a general lack of…

A framework is presented for understanding how errors arise in institutional research, and principles are suggested to avert errors in work processes of institutional research offices. Error is defined as a product which fails to meet professional standards, has unacceptable process limitations, or is unacceptable to a client. The following four…

This book reflects some of the debate following publication of the 1991 Further and Higher Education Bill, and it also draws on preliminary findings of a national research project funded by a partnership of government, business, and higher education that was designed to develop and test quality assessment methods. Chapters are organized in three…