Purpose: In recent decades, higher education institutions have been encouraged to develop their own internal management systems as a response to perceived quality challenges in the sector. These quality management (QM) systems have often been found to mainly reflect external accountability requirements, with less focus on coherent study programme…

What happens when a classical music instrument performance course at a Norwegian state university study programme is assessed for quality following a standardized procedure? The article explores frictions and negotiations between managerial quality assurance and classical music performance education in a contextual sense, focusing particularly on…

The severity of the global economic crisis has put the spotlight firmly on measuring academic and research performance and productivity and assessing its contribution, value, impact and benefit. While, traditionally, research output and impact were measured by peer-publications and citations, there is increased emphasis on a "market-driven…

In this paper, I argue for more and better learning metrics in higher education, eventually through an international, comparative assessment of students' learning outcomes. Better learning measures may help to improve transparency in the system by addressing the information asymmetry problem. If not addressed adequately, the lack of transparency…

The role and function of external quality assurance is of great importance for the development of an internal quality culture in higher education. Research has shown that external quality assurance can stimulate but also create obstacles for institutional improvement. To strike a balance between improvement and accountability is, therefore, a key…

This report is a product of an European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) Workshop "Assessing educational quality: Knowledge production and the role of experts" hosted by the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (NOKUT) in Oslo in February, 2008. The workshop gathered representatives from higher…

The core argument is that social science must re-examine its mission and praxis in order to be a significant player in future higher education. This article reviews the results and prospects arising from a four-year international project. Originating in Greenwood and Levin's concern about the social sciences, the project, funded by the Ford…

Administrators, academic and nonacademic staff, and students in 17 institutions in Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom were surveyed for responses to hypothesized demands and constraints in administration, such as accountability, legal issues, administrative structure changes, declining enrollment, productivity. (MSE)

Implementation and results of government-mandated "results-oriented planning" in Norwegian universities are analyzed using two approaches: the first looks at the effects of the initiative, and the second views the management reforms as cosmetic. It is found that while academic staff are involved in the new planning system, little effect…

Examines how two government-initiated reforms, result-oriented planning and quality assessment, were perceived by 43 department heads and faculty at Norwegian colleges and universities. While result-oriented planning was perceived as an unnecessary reform, causing high tension and having only symbolic effects, quality assessment was seen as valid,…

Educational systems worldwide still continue to rely heavily on public sources of funding. Nearly 80% of the expenditure on higher education comes from public sources in OECD countries; the share is even larger in developing countries. There is a concerted effort in many countries to reduce the reliance on state funding and move towards…

This volume presents a selection of the 200 papers given at the 1999 biennial conference of the International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching. The theme of the conference was "Teachers and Teaching: Revisioning Policy and Practice for the Twenty-First Century." The 15 papers are: (1) "Teaching in a Box: Emotional…

Trends in university management in Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom were studied as part of a larger study of European universities. The survey instrument collected information on basic facts on the institution, the organizational system, the decision-making system, the administrative structure, management techniques and…