The Seventh QHE Seminar
Transforming Quality
30th-31st October 2002
Storey Hall, RMIT
Melbourne Australia
Parallel sessions
Session 1
1.1 Transforming quality in research supervision: a knowledge management approach
Fang Zhao
School of Management, Business Faculty, RMIT University
Melbourne, Australia
The emergence of knowledge management approach has profound implications for transforming the quality of research education and training in universities where knowledge business dominates. The primary goal of research supervision in the higher education sector is the achievement of quality, relevance and completion rate. The effectiveness of research supervision process to achieve quality and relevance and to increase completion rate will be enhanced if knowledge management concepts are effectively integrated into the process. An innovative research supervision model which incorporates knowledge management process into research supervision to achieve the primary goal is outlined. The model demonstrates close synergies between knowledge conversion process and that of research supervision.
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1.2 "Do we really have to do this?": The purposes, problems and possibilities of the programme annual reporting process
Sophie Hayman, Elizabeth Kelly, Linda O'Neill
Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
In 1993 a system of annual reporting on programmes was introduced at Auckland University of Technology (then Auckland Institute of Technology) as a tool for both the monitoring and the improvement of academic programmes. Some changes were made to the report format following an audit in 1996. Using feedback from staff responsible for producing reports for academic programmes within one faculty, this paper examines the original intent of the annual reporting process and some effects of the apparent tension between its competing purposes (accountability and improvement). We will evaluate some of the strategies that have been used to try to resolve the tension, and consider the way forward.
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1.3 Quality online education: new research agendas
Ian C. Reid
University of South Australia
Quality assurance and online delivery are hot topics in Australian universities, yet until recently these spheres of activity in universities may not have interacted very closely. This paper describes current debates within quality assurance and online delivery within universities and proposes four possible themes as ways to critique these debates. Arising from this discussion are possible research agendas that are likely to increase in importance as universities' use and reliance upon online delivery increases, and as the stakes for ensuring quality are raised.
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1.4 Internationalisation and ICT in a service university
Anne Welle-Strand
Norwegian School of Management BI
Department of Leadership and Organisational Management, Norwegian School of Management BI
In the international market of educational services, business schools have a large contribution. To investigate internationalisation of higher education and particularly the role ICT plays in this process two research objectives are: a) Investigate internationalisation strategies in higher education, b) Investigate the roles played by ICT in the internationalisation process. The Norwegian school of management BI is seen as a relevant case for the research questions. Data on BI's strategies, practices and potentials of internationalization and ICT will be the basis for a descriptive mode of analysis.
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1.5 Action at a distance: transforming students? Transforming organisations?
Pam Green and Robin Usher
Research Training Group, R&D, RMIT
Does quality management transform students; does it transform institutions? Universities are experiencing an acute tension between autonomy and accountability. As they become more closely aligned with the market, how quality is defined, established and monitored becomes managerial rather than academic. The paper argues that quality management is most effective through 'action at a distance': by being removed from direct control over what is still the main function of universities viz. teaching and learning and research. Contemporary developments could be interpreted as undermining this principle. Action at a distance is being replaced by direct intervention and increasingly the quality agenda appears to academics to be more about surveillance and control than improvement and learning. Is external quality management facilitating excellence and transforming institutions or simply making them more hierarchical and less participative?
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Session 2
2.1 Improving the quality and direction of universities through student involvement
Oluf Riddersholm, Mia Kjersner
Graduate Students at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Despite all the emphasis on external quality procedures, a key driver for quality improvement at CBS has been the extensive and direct involvement of students in programme planning. The students have the opportunity to evaluate each course including curriculum, teachers and examination methods. These evaluations are used in the ongoing improvement of the programme in the direction that suits the modern demands of today's students and institutional administration. Using the students tacit knowledge and furthermore including student representatives in the decision making process at different levels of administration, has shown the importance of involving students when improving the quality of the experience and of the learning.
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2.2 Transforming the campus experience of students
Minakinagurki Srinivasaiah Shyamasundar
National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Bangalore, India
The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) of India was established by the University Grants Commission in 1994 as an autonomous body to assess and accredit institutions of higher education in the country. So far 261 institutions of higher education (61 universities and 200 colleges) have been accredited. NAAC's process of accreditation has made institutions realise that quality is the responsibility of the institutions themselves. This realization has made the institutions initiate quality management procedures. For example, institutions introduced peer appraisal and student evaluation of teachers, issues that still continue to be the bone of contention in many countries. Collecting feedback from parents, alumni and students for improving the educational experiences and consultations with peers to overcome the weak links were initiated in many institutions. In particular, the attitude of the institutions towards the reliability of student feedback and the competence of the students to provide meaningful feedback underwent a tremendous change. This paper discusses the impact that has been made by this attitudinal change, which in turn has transformed the campus experience of students.
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2.3 Research and the curriculum
Kevin Dooley
Galway/Mayo Institute of Technology
The main question that this paper addresses is a strategic one. To what extent and in what form should the new universities and institutes of technology engage in research?
The literature and our research into this topic points to a number of areas of possible conflict between research and teaching. This presents problems for the institutes of technology which have been primarily teaching institutions with a separate identity from traditional universities. Higher degrees and postgraduate research are now taken for granted. At the same time it is crucial to provide and enhance an environment which facilitates a quality learning process.
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2.4 The impact of national transformation imperatives and quality monitoring on programme self-evaluation at a South African university: lessons learned
Annette Wilkinson
Unit for Quality Assurance and Management, Centre for Higher Education Studies and Development
University of the Free State, South Africa
In South Africa, the National Plan for Higher Education paved the way for major restructuring and transformation. In addition to employment equity legislation and a new funding formula, quality assurance have been identified as a steering element in the transformation process. The University of the Free State, being a historically advantaged university, put tremendous effort into the transformation process and tried to respond to national policy priorities without losing its focus on quality and relevance. The self-evaluation instrument developed for the 2002 programme self-evaluation (a pilot project) clearly reflects a transformative character with a strong focus on the systemic development and adaptation of academic programmes. This paper reflects on the influence of external and internal forces on the development and nature of the framework used as instrument, as well as the way in which the implementation of the project was steered to induce reluctant faculty to come on board. Valuable lessons were learned on the way.
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Session 3
3.1 The impact of external approval processes on programme development
Philippa Gerbic, Ineke Kranenburg
Auckland University of Technology
This paper presents preliminary findings from a comparative study. Two models of external programme approval in New Zealand and their impact on programme development were examined. The focus of the study was the development and approval of two majors within the same undergraduate programme. Analysis of the two models of approval is followed by discussion of participants' perceptions of the ways in which the external approval processes influences the development of the programme idea, its readiness for delivery and team development. It is hoped that this study will prove useful with the development or further refinement of internal or external programme approval and accreditation processes. In particular, this paper identifies those aspects of the process that are likely to lead to further enhancement of a new programme and its implementation.
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3.2 Transforming the quality of international education: evaluating reviews of offshore programmes
Colleen B Liston
Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia.
Curtin University has policy on international education services with supporting 'Procedures for Assessment of New Programs and Procedures for Annual Review of Offshore Programs'. A major part of the annual review requires an assessment of each collaborator and all aspects of the collaboration. This paper presents a summary of evaluations of the fifty-eight offshore programmes offered through collaborators in 2001. It highlights the transforming effects of the procedures on schools offering offshore programmes and on collaborators. The reviews have also had a transforming effect on the policy itself with a revision being made following evaluation of the 2001 reviews. Curtin is one of the universities in the first round of the Australian Universities Quality Audit (AUQA) and has been able to present the outcomes from reviews, based on the policy and procedures, in terms of enhancements improvements made.
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3.3 Reflective and collaborative teaching practice: working towards quality student learning outcomes
Tracey Bretag
School of International Business, University of South Australia
This paper details the development of one course, International Management Ethics and Values (IMEV), which is part of the Bachelor of Management degree (BMgt) at the University of South Australia. Established in 1999, IMEV has undergone a number of changes, including an increased emphasis on collaborative teaching and the introduction of integrated communication skills. Using qualitative analysis (student evaluation of teaching, student e-mail communication and feedback) and quantitative data (grade comparisons), the authors suggest that a cycle of reflection and revision in relation to curriculum and teaching methods has resulted in quality learning outcomes for students.
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3.4 Don't care was made to care: changing a compliance culture in a NZ polytechnic
Mark Barrow
Academic Development Unit, UNITEC Institute of Technology
UNITEC is attempting to cause a shift from a paradigm which views quality as systems compliance to a paradigm of care where quality is about making a real difference in classrooms. An institutional Quality Development Committee has developed a set of 'quality principles' to replace comprehensive standards and processes specified in the existing quality-management system, with staff encouraged to develop tailored processes, through controlled pilots, rather than unthinkingly implementing pre-defined institutional procedures. This paper outlines our experience to date and considers whether a paradigm shift might be achieved or whether the institute is simply moving from one form of compliance to another.
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3.5 The balance of autonomy and accountability in London Guildhall University's quality management system
Paul Coyle,
London Guildhall University, United Kingdom
This paper describes the design and operation of the quality management system at London Guildhall University, which is an institution committed to widening participation to groups traditionally under-represented in Higher Education in the United Kingdom. The consequences for balancing autonomy and accountability, following the University's introduction of a flat management structure, are explored. Work in progress to enhance the quality management system is described including the increasing use of self-evaluation based on evidence, knowledge management techniques, and methods for the prediction and prevention of risks.
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Session 4
4.1 Independent benchmarking in higher education: reflections on an implementation
Kam-Por Kwan,
Educational Development Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China.
There has been an increasing interest in benchmarking as a referencing process for assuring and enhancing quality and outcome of higher education provisions. A number of major collaborative benchmarking projects have been carried out in the USA, Australia, UK and other European countries in the areas of library and information services, facilities management, admissions, financial services, academic practice, academic management, assessment practice and students' learning outcomes. However, relatively little has been written on how the benchmarking activities have impacted upon the organisation, or the practical problems that have arisen in an actual benchmarking process. This paper reports the implementation of an independent benchmarking study recently conducted by a university in Hong Kong on educational development support services in higher education institutions. It describes the objectives of the study and the methodology adopted, reports the outcomes of the study, and discusses the benefits of, and problems and issues in the actual benchmarking exercise.
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4.2 Ensuring customer delight: a quality approach to excellence in management education
Sapna Popli
Institute for Integrated learning in Management, N. Delhi . India.
Management education is at the threshold of transformation. The demands from industry, the students and society at large are puttinga pressure on the champions of management education in India. The competitive environment in the country has changed. The university system of education has been replaced by an upcoming and mushrooming growth in the number of private management schools. The numbers have increased but the quality of education maybe suffering. The paper aims at studying the level of customer satisfaction and developing a mechanism of providing customer delight to the customers of management education. There have been various debates on the treatment of students as customers, the paper still considers the students and industry as two sets of customers and after a measurement on their level of satisfaction the institutes of management education can strive at delighting these customers in the identified parameters. Customer delight is also one of the enablers to achieve total quality in any sector and quality does not need any supporting evidence to say it is a definitive route to excellence.
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4.3 Improving the quality and direction of universities through student involvement
Dr. Fauza Abd. Ghaffar
University of Malaya
Controlled product realisation process and well-trained staff are among identified success factors in the provision of consistently high quality products. Whilst the former could be realised with regimented execution of documents identifying the proper temporal sequence of the activities constituting a process, and as well as their interactions, the latter can only be realised with rigorous on-going or progressive training programmes. An effective solution for conduct of repetitive training programmes would be to develop a strategy for mechanisation of the training programme with multimedia elements. Development strategies for the most cost-efficient and fastest development of training delivery module (start to finish) were analysed using the Pareto analysis of individual identified process transaction duration. However, it should be clear that the results of such study are partially dependent on the complexity of the development and delivery model of choice.
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4.4 Establishing a national quality assurance system in Vietnamese higher education: background research
Kimdung Nguyen
University of Melbourne
A recent plan for establishing a national quality assurance in Vietnamese Higher Education has been approved by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET). In this paper, background research for establishment a quality assurance system in teaching and learning is explored. The discussion is based on a study of the experiences of Western educational systems and a pilot study observing and surveying opinions of Vietnamese stakeholders on this issue from December 2001 to April 2002. The findings of the pilot study reveal that quality in Vietnamese Higher Education is viewed as that not only transforming students according to course objectives but also that meeting the needs of the fast changing society like Vietnam. In addition, frequent surveys to collect clients' opinions on the quality of graduates in order to evaluate the quality of teaching and learning are currently considered as a more appropriate option for external quality evaluation.
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4.5 The service university and academic freedom
Arild Tjeldvoll
University of Oslo
Sources of discontent for the traditional Western research university have multiplied during the recent decade. Threats to academic freedom are related to appearance of new labels for university, such as The Service University. Current university development is analysed in terms of how globalisation, as a change in the research university's surroundings, is influencing the university's organisation and production. General and specific conditions for doing free and critical research within a market-driven service university are discussed in general, before the case of Norway is related to the international trends. In conclusion it is claimed that a global higher education market is unavoidable. The possibilities for continued free academic research within the historically new conditions rest with the professors' sociological imagination and strategic creativity in exploiting the possibilities of, particularly, the new information and communication technology.
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Session 5
5.1 Engaging grassroots academics in quality conversations and quality assurance initiatives: Opportunity lost?