Response: Holding to the Quality Compass in Troubled Times

As rightly mentioned in the above article, universities have operated in unstable environments and uncertain times for a long time. While the new challenges faced today by higher education and quality assurance systems, such as the rapid spread of artificial intelligence and ideological assaults on scientific research and social sciences, may appear unsettling or even overwhelming, they are not entirely unprecedented. The great economic recession between December 2007 and early 2009 had a severe impact on university finances in many parts of the world. The digital revolution of the past two decades has brought about a substantial transformation of programs, curricula and course content. Universities have often been under extreme political threat in previous historical periods (Nazi era, Chinese cultural revolution, McCarthyism). Wars and civil strife have forced hundreds of thousands of students and academics to become internally displaced people or refugees in exile.

More recently, the Covid-19 pandemic, perhaps the most disruptive event experienced by universities and colleges in the history of higher education, accelerated the move to online and hybrid teaching and learning. On top of everything else, the climate crisis and the major disorders it causes represent an ominous existential menace not just for higher education but for humanity itself.

Are universities well prepared and equipped to adapt to these threats? In particular, are they resilient enough to ride the current wave of authoritarianism, cultural war, and science denial? Under the title “controlling the controllables”, the article under review suggests that universities can best uphold their mission and maintain the quality of their offerings by concentrating on “the underlying principles of accreditation and external quality review—academic rigor, institutional integrity, student learning, and continuous improvement”.

Drawing on the experience of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a world leader in the training of professionals for the aviation and aerospace industry with its main campuses in the United States and dozens of instructional sites in many regions of the planet, the article emphasizes the need to define institutional performance and student success essentially in terms of learning outcomes and mental well-being rather than passive acquiescence to external requirements. It reminds us that quality is not a matter of compliance, but the outcome of robust internal quality assurance systems built on shared values, owned by the entire university community, focused on achieving high standards, and driven by a culture of continuous improvement.

The message of the article may be on the optimistic side as it is not always possible to survive external attacks against universities and accreditation agencies, as the unfortunate story of the Central European University shows. Celebrated as an international university renowned for its academic excellence in the social sciences and humanities, it was driven away from Budapest and forced to relocate in Vienna after the illiberal Prime Minister of Hungary set out to shut it down in 2017. Similarly, what has happened in the United States in the past three years—outlawing DEI, limiting academic freedom, restricting institutional autonomy, and cutting research funding—has created a culture of fear and self-censorship in many universities, severely dented the international reputation of US higher education, and may have caused irreparable damage to US scientific capacity.

Nonetheless, the basic message of the article is sound and wide-ranging. The best way of building resilience is to “control the controllables” in the spirit of the serenity prayer written in 1933 by the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, himself echoing the teachings of the Stoics from around 300 BC: “give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed, the courage to change what can, and the wisdom to know the difference”.

The fact remains that the University embodies, more than any institution, the scientific foundations of modern societies and the equity principles at the core of all democratic nations and major world religions. Universities will undoubtedly continue to resist and thrive with the guidance and support of independent quality assurance and reliable accreditation systems. As the 16th century Portuguese explorer wrote, “the sea is dangerous and its storms are terrible, but these obstacles have never been sufficient reason to remain ashore”.

Jamil Salmi
Global Tertiary Education Expert
[email protected]; www.tertiaryeducation.org