Abstract
Although the literature on institutional diversity suggests that quality assurance practices could affect institutional diversity, there has been little empirical research on this relationship. This article seeks to shed some light on the possible connection between quality assurance practices and institutional diversity by examining the arrangements for quality assurance in higher education systems that include two distinct sectors, one of which having a more academic orientation and the other a more applied orientation. The article explores the ways in which quality assurance structures and standards in selected jurisdictions provide for recognition of the differences in orientation and mission between academic and applied sectors of higher education systems. The research identified some features of quality assurance systems that recognize the characteristics of applied higher education, such as having different statements of expected learning outcomes for applied and academic programs or requiring different qualifications for faculty who teach in applied programs. It is hoped that the results might be of interest to policy makers and quality assurance practitioners who are concerned about the possible impact of quality assurance on institutional diversity.
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Notes
In 2009, the two non-university institutions in Alberta that offered the largest numbers of applied baccalaureate programs became universities, thus significantly reducing the number of baccalaureate degrees awarded by the non-university sector (Skolnik 2013b).
The author served on the governing board of this agency from 2001 to 2005. Observations given here about its span of coverage and its quality standards are derived from examination of its more recent public documents, not from personal recollections of the author’s time on the agency’s board.
The report of the committee that developed Finland’s national qualifications framework also included detailed descriptions of the differences between the degrees of the polytechnics and the universities with respect to goals and expected learning outcomes (Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture 2009b, pp. 26–29).
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Acknowledgments
Much of the data on quality assurance practices and standards presented in this paper were collected by the author for a report (Skolnik 2013a) that he produced as a consultant to the association of applied sector institutions in Ontario, Colleges Ontario. The purpose of the earlier study was to describe for Colleges Ontario the quality assurance practices for baccalaureate degrees of applied sector institutions in other jurisdictions, whereas the present article attempts to analyze that data in the context of the literature on institutional diversity. Some of the data from the earlier study have been updated for this article. The author did not receive any funding specifically for the preparation of this article. It may also be worth noting that some of the author’s previous publications have been supportive of the idea of community colleges in Canada and the USA awarding baccalaureate degrees, and critical of some of the conventional practices of quality assurance agencies.
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Skolnik, M.L. How do quality assurance systems accommodate the differences between academic and applied higher education?. High Educ 71, 361–378 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9908-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9908-4