Special International Issue
QAA Set To Retain Key Role in Monitoring University Standards (Times Higher Education, May 13, 2016) “The Quality Assurance Agency is set to retain a key role in monitoring standards in English higher education, after preferred bidders for the work were announced. The QAA looks likely to secure four of six tenders being offered by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with one each being taken by the Higher Education Academy and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.”
HE White Paper: Quality Plans Back QAA, Appear to Criticize HEFCE (Times Higher Education, May 16, 2016) “The [UK] government’s White Paper praises the work of the Quality Assurance Agency and pledges to retain the “most positive” aspects of the current quality system.”
Higher Education, Quality Assurance and Nation-Building (Times Higher Education, May 13, 2016) “Recent multi-country case studies have highlighted the capacity of quality assurance in higher education to support nation-building in multiple ways.”
Quality in Africa: New Initiatives (Inside Higher Ed, May 15, 2016) “The ‘Harmonization of African Higher Education Quality Assurance and Accreditation’ is funded by the European Union (EU) and forms part of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy, which was adopted in 2007 and which provides a framework for long-term cooperation between Africa and Europe on identified, mutual and complementary interests. The idea is for Africa to develop a quality assurance and accreditation model which is specific to the continent but which uses the experiences of Europe.”
How Good Are We? (The Express Tribune, May 16, 2016) “Some may suggest that accreditation from national organisations, such as the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), could be used as a metric of a high standard. That unfortunately is not a particularly strong argument either. The PEC and other accreditation organisations have not embraced innovation, creativity and changing trends, and seem to be out of touch with ground realities in education and research.”
NITI Aayog Suggests Private Bodies for Educational Accreditation: Sources (Hindustan Times, May 16, 2016) “The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog has asked the Union human resource ministry to explore the option of privatising the process of accrediting higher education institutions to clear the current backlog, sources have said.”
The Man Who Helps Students Cheat (BBC News, May 12, 2016) “The Quality Assurance Agency, which oversees standards in higher education, recently launched an inquiry to determine the impact of essay-writing companies.”