External Quality Assurance of New Zealand Tertiary Education Providers Matters: Life Jacket or Strait-Jacket? AIR 2001 Annual Forum Paper.

The reality of external academic/quality audit has arrived for all tertiary education providers in New Zealand under the umbrella of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. This paper reviews the development over the past decade of external quality assurance of tertiary providers by quality assurance authorities and their associated bodies. The methodology included a literature review of the key influences and features of external quality assurance in the tertiary sector and an examination of the impact of external quality assurance processes on the development and delivery of courses and qualifications offered by the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. The two main findings are that: (1) the development of external quality assurance of tertiary providers by quality assurance authorities and their associated bodies has been evolutionary and controversial; and (2) as a result of responding to the demands of external quality assurance, tertiary providers have experienced a significant increase in both their administrative workload and their compliance costs. Providers who have adopted a "life jacket" approach to external quality assurance have reaped the rewards of compliance, but those who have seen it as a strait jacket, are ceasing to exist. (Contains 23 references.) (SLD)