Abstract
The quality, and quality assurance, movements have become highly contested issues in the advent of new managerialism1 in higher education. This is because while the notion of quality is critical to institutional autonomy and academic freedom, there are no universal criteria to determine quality in the current conditions of global competitiveness and new managerialism. In this chapter we analyze quality measures and the quality assurance movement in the current global market economy. We investigate ways in which the quality assurance movement has shaped higher education policy and practice and impacted national, regional, and international priorities. The chapter’s emphasis is on the following areas: (a) policy borrowing on criteria to measure quality and quality assurance movement, (b) the impact of globalization and new managerialism on perceptions of quality and equity imperatives, (c) institutional ranking and the rating of individual academics as criteria for determining quality in higher education, and (d) implications for policy and theory.
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© 2010 Laura M. Portnoi, Val D. Rust, and Sylvia S. Bagley
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Ntshoe, I., Letseka, M. (2010). Quality Assurance and Global Competitiveness in Higher Education. In: Portnoi, L.M., Rust, V.D., Bagley, S.S. (eds) Higher Education, Policy, and the Global Competition Phenomenon. International and Development Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230106130_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230106130_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
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