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One of the purposes of the Bologna process in Europe is to assure quality in higher education institutions. The development of quality culture, which is part of organizational culture, is one of the ways how quality in higher education institutions can be assured. However, if we want to develop quality culture in higher education, primarily we need to evaluate the quality culture in order to know how strong it is in a higher education institution and which parts of quality culture we need to improve. But it is difficult to evaluate quality culture, because there is still lack of research on this topic in education, psychology and management research literature and the definition of quality culture itself is not clean This article aims at defining the concept of organizational culture quality and substantiating quality culture dimensions and criteria, comparing the European and the USA conceptions of quality culture. There were eight quality culture dimensions set in this article, providing criteria to all these dimensions: 1) human resource management, 2) leadership, 3) quality implementation, 4) organization attitude to change, 5) institutional quality evaluation, 6) orientation to customer, 7) decision making and 8) strategic planning dimensions. The dimensions and criteria identified in this article can be used in building quality culture measurement instruments in higher education institutions, which would allow comparing and assessing quality culture in different higher education institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings and conclusions of recent exploratory research conducted by the authors on quality practices at higher education institutions in the US and Malaysia. Data from the institutions were collected via mail questionnaires in December 1997 (Malaysia) and February 1998 (US). A brief description of the research as well as a summary of findings and conclusions are included in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The learning assistant (LA) model is a widely used and researched model for institutional and course transformation towards research-based instructional strategies (RBIS). The LA model leverages learning assistants, pedagogically trained students, to facilitate student learning in active learning environments. However, although the LA model has shown significant results when implemented in university contexts in the United States, there has as yet been little documentation of similar implementation or results in European higher education. In this study, we present the results of a three-semester design-based research project to implement the LA Model in a Scandinavian physics department. The three core elements of the LA model (pedagogical training, course content meetings, and teaching in active learning environments) were implemented and iteratively refined, with necessary adjustments due to the specific institutional and cultural contexts documented. Throughout all three semesters, data was collected on how participation in the LA model affected LAs' buy-in to RBIS using focus groups, pre/post surveys, and teaching observations. A thematic analysis of these data showed that participation in the LA model helped ensure LA buy-in to both the interactive engagement methods and goal of cultivating conceptual understanding that underlie most RBIS, and that the combination of teaching practice and pedagogical training seminars were key to this buy-in. We argue that these results demonstrate the potential usefulness of the LA model for creating institutional and cultural change in European higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional wisdom about American campuses abroad suggests that they are typically vanity projects for cosmopolitans. This view reflects only a partial reality. A new database from the Global American Higher Education initiative shows that the landscape is more diverse and inclusive than commonly understood. These institutions are largely unknown in the United States but extend the American higher education footprint into 80 countries around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creation of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) represents a significant development concerning the teaching mission of the university in the UK. This paper considers the background to, and the development of, the TEF. It explains the context from which the TEF emerged and unpacks a series of rationales which illustrate the need for, and the role of, the new framework. The TEF is presented as an instrument to fulfil a range of functions, including: a mechanism to determine tuition fee rises and inform student choices in a reconfigured higher education market; a means of updating the quality and regulatory regime; and a way of raising the esteem of teaching within the academy, and the importance institutions place on student education. The paper explains how the contested idea of “teaching excellence” is defined within the framework, and the metrics and methodology used to assess this. An overview of the submission process and results illustrates how the TEF works in practice. How the TEF embeds two agendas in higher education is discussed: the use of quantitative measures to capture and convey performance, and the role of the student as a consumer not just a learner. The paper concludes the TEF can be viewed as a multi-purpose evaluation tool, not merely designed by the imperatives of teaching excellence or quality assurance, but also by the need for a measure to provide market information to consumers and allocate fee increases to institutions, and this is reflected in its content and character. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we present an analysis of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (SoTL) which contributes to SoTL both as a field of research practice and as a background to professional development in higher education. We analyse and describe the constitution of the field, and in so doing address its nature in the face of the dilemma of, on the one hand, its diversity and, on the other hand, its generally agreed set of purposes. Our analysis of SoTL knowledge is conceptualised as relational, connecting SoTL practitioners with the work they disseminate to the community at large. We describe and exemplify the internal horizon of the field in terms of five domains: the didactic and the epistemic, which we refer to as the knowledge building domains, and the interpersonal, the moral/ethical and the societal domains, which we refer to as the axiological domains. The external horizon is described in terms of four aspects of the context that can impact the production and implementation of SoTL knowledge: the disciplinary, the professional, the cultural and the political aspects. Methodological emphasis is equally on the axiological underpinnings of SoTL, its values and attitudes, as the ontological and epistemological underpinnings that are predominant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the cultural competence in higher education, an ecological framework or student development. Topics include the politics of cultural competence in higher education, the demographic changes in student enrollment, and the prevalence of a color-blind racial ideology in the U.S. Also mentioned are the pathway and the inclusive excellence to cultural competence, deconstructing cultural competence, and diversity competence.

Evaluation policy and practice have always harboured a delicate motivational balance. On the one hand, the mission of quality assurance is clear: funding authorities, potential clients, and other stakeholders must all be able to count on the integrity of the process and of the judgements it renders. This, in turn, requires clear and understandable standards, rigorously applied in a manner that not only is but appears valid, with results communicated to the public in accessible ways. On the other hand, most evaluation practices, though owned and operated by external agencies, claim sincerely that the institutions under review will learn something of value that will help them improve. This requires a more flexible process of inquiry, applied rigorously to be sure, but with sensitivity to context as well. To preserve the confidence needed to inform action, moreover, it demands reviews that are conducted in camera and whose results are often communicated in 'code'. Recognising these embedded tensions leads to two critical questions. First, what specific features of our present evaluation practices in higher education render them capable of resolving this contradiction of purposes, that is, of discharging accountability while still 'adding value' to institutions? Second, what are some of the particular features of institution-level 'good practice' in the use of information that external quality-assurance agents should explicitly recognise and foster through their processes? This article assays some initial answers to these twin questions based on emerging US experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]