Supporting quality research in institutions of higher education.

Supporting quality research in institutions of higher education. Over the past three decades, governments and universities in OECD OECD:see Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. countries have relied mainly on six different mechanisms to safeguardquality in university research: competitive allocation The apportionment or designation of an item for a specific purpose or to a particular place.In the law of trusts, the allocation of cash dividends earned by a stock that makes up the principal of a trust for a beneficiary usually means that the dividends will be treated as of researchfunding Research funding is a term generally covering any funding for scientific research, in the areas of both "hard" science and technology and social science. The term often connotes funding obtained through a competitive process, in which potential research projects are evaluated and to institutions; competitive funding of research projects usingpeer review; use of peer review by scholarly journals; citation Citation(foaled 1945) U.S. Thoroughbred racehorse. In four seasons he won 32 of 45 races, finished second in ten, and third in two. He won the 1948 Triple Crown, and became the first horse to win $1 million. He set a world record in 1950 by running a mile in 1:33 3/5. indices;performance indicators; and external reviews. More recently, manycountries have added new quality assurance mechanisms which haveincluded emphasis on research, particularly `horizontal' reviews ofdisciplines and `vertical' academic audits. Two recent Australian Australianpertaining to or originating in Australia.Australian bat lyssavirus diseasesee Australian bat lyssavirus disease.Australian cattle doga medium-sized, compact working dog used for control of cattle. developments of importance have been the national program of qualityassurance from 1993-1995 and use of the Composite Index Composite IndexA grouping of equities, indexes or other factors combined in a standardized way, providing a useful statistical measure of overall market or sector performance over time. Also known simply as a "composite". for allocationof the Research Quantum. Introduction This paper reviews approaches and mechanisms used by universitiesto ensure that the research they undertake is appropriate and of highquality. More specifically, it: * outlines the main `traditional' approaches adopted inAustralia Australia(ôstrāl`yə), smallest continent, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. With the island state of Tasmania to the south, the continent makes up the Commonwealth of Australia, a federal parliamentary state (2005 est. pop. and other OECD countries over the past three decades or so toquality assurance for research; * explains the new approaches introduced internationally as part ofthe quality assurance movement; * considers the controversial quality assurance program for highereducation higher educationStudy beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. undertaken in Australia at the national level by the LaborGovernment between 1993 and 1995 and, particularly, the third of thethree quality rounds which focused mainly on research; * comments on the role of the Research Quantum in quality assurancefor research in Australia; and * reviews recent developments in Australia and comments brieflyabout possible future developments. Throughout the paper, the discussion gives most attention tonational policies and issues, although some reference is made to qualityassurance at the institutional level. Although the emphasis is mainly onAustralian developments, reference is made to recent developmentsinternationally. Whereas from their start Australian universities emphasised theimportance of scholarship, organised research with a substantial amountof external funding has been largely a post second world war phenomenon.Today, however, research is seen as being a most important activity inall Australian universities, with substantial funds to pursue researchactivities coming from the Commonwealth Government through theDepartment of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs(DEETYA), the Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the Australian Government’s main agency for allocating research funding to academics and researchers in Australian universities. (ARC), and other federalgovernment agencies; from state governments; and from industry. Table 1summarises the funding provided in 1997 to higher education research andresearch training. Funds from Commonwealth Government and other sourcesamounted to almost $1700 million and the Commonwealth alone suppliedabout $1475 million of this. The amount of almost $1700 million does notinclude various funding for research and research training allocatedinternally by universities in the form of internal research support,research scholarships and research fellowships, nor does it take intoaccount the time spent on research activities by academic and otherstaff funded from the operating grant. Research activities figurelargely in the lives of many academic staff and considerable space isgiven on campuses to large-scale large-scaleadj.1. Large in scope or extent.2. Drawn or made large to show detail.large-scaleAdjective1. wide-ranging or extensive2. research facilities. Researchachievements play an important role in academic appointments andpromotion of academic staff, and most status hierarchies of universitiesand university departments are based on research strength andachievement. Table 1 Funds provided for research and research training inAustralian higher education, 1997 $ millionARC/DEETYA targeted programs 410Institute of Advanced Studies, ANU 155Research Quantum component of operating grant 220Research training component of operating grant 470Funds from other Commonwealth portfolios 220Industry and other funding 215Total 1690 Source: Estimates by DEETYA published in Review of Higher EducationFinancing and Policy (1998, p. 75). Concern about quality is by no means new in higher education(Harman Harman can refer to: PeopleAndrew Harman, writer Avraham Harman, diplomat Brooke Harman, actress Chris Harman, Trotskyist Denham Harman, biogerontologist Gilbert Harman, philosopher Glyn Harman, mathematician , 1994) both in Australia and internationally, although, in thepast, universities and government agencies tended to employ somewhatdifferent mechanisms from what they use today. In the past, they alsoused somewhat different terms, such as academic standards, academiccoherence coherence,constant phase difference in two or more Waves over time. Two waves are said to be in phase if their crests and troughs meet at the same place at the same time, and the waves are out of phase if the crests of one meet the troughs of another. , and evaluation. But over the past decade or so, quality hastaken on new importance in many higher education systems (Craft, 1992,1994; Harman, 1996b; Kells Kells,Republic of Ireland: see Ceanannus Mór. , 1992; Kells & van Vught Vught ((helpinfo)) is a municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands. It is a town where lots of commuters live and has recently been named "Best place to live" by the Dutch magazine Elsevier. , 1988) andvarious efforts have been made, both nationally and within institutions,to develop new quality assurance mechanisms. As a result, the term`quality assurance' has become widely accepted within highereducation systems. Although there are many definitions of quality assurance in therecent higher education literature (e.g. see Ball, 1985; Birnbaum Birnbaum (German: "pear tree") may refer to: Birnbaum an der Warthe and Kreis Birnbaum, today Międzych��d, a city and county in Posen district, Poland Birnbaum (Franconian Forest) , a city in the Franconian Forest , 1994;Lindsay Lindsay,town (1991 pop. 16,696), SE Ont., Canada, on the Scugog River, NE of Toronto. It is an industrial town, with woolen, flour, and lumber mills, in an agricultural and scenic lake district. , 1992; van Vught & Westerheijden, 1992), in essence, qualityassurance refers to systematic management and assessment proceduresadopted to ensure achievement of specified quality or improved quality,and to thus enable key stakeholders StakeholdersAll parties that have an interest, financial or otherwise, in a firm-stockholders, creditors, bondholders, employees, customers, management, the community, and the government. to have confidence about themanagement of quality and the outcomes achieved. Some authors (e.g.Brennan Bren��nan? , William Joseph, Jr. 1906-1997.American jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1956-1990). , 1997) prefer use of the term `quality assessment' insteadof quality assurance. However, although a great deal of effort inquality assurance relates to `quality assessment', qualityassurance in this paper is thought of as being a broader term whichembraces not only assessment but also other activities including, forexample, follow-up follow-up,n the process of monitoring the progress of a patient after a period of active treatment.follow-upsubsequent.follow-up plan aimed to achieve improvement. Although the term`quality assurance' covers a great deal of what was previouslydiscussed under other names, what is important to note is that qualityassurance implies a more systematic and far-reaching far-reach��ingadj.Having a wide range, influence, or effect: the far-reaching implications of a major new epidemic. approach toensuring that institutions and systems have in place mechanisms forreview and assessment, and for renewal and improvement. Compared withpast approaches, the new quality assurance mechanisms also put much moreemphasis on external scrutiny, seeking the views of employers andgraduates and, in various ways, making the results of assessments morewidely available. The quality assurance movement of the past decade has sprung from avariety of factors. Particularly important have been community andgovernment concerns about academic standards and the levels ofachievements of graduates in a time of major expansion in studentnumbers associated with decreasing government funding support perstudent unit. But the quality assurance movement has also been driven bythe impact of increased international competitiveness, the need forincreased mobility of professional labour, demands for greateraccountability by public institutions which flow from the emergence ofthe `evaluative state' (Neave, 1997), concerns related to theexpansion of private higher education and more market-orientedapproaches to funding, and pressure from employers and the professionsfor university courses to become more relevant to workplace needs. Inthe case of research, there are particular issues about accountabilityfor ongoing and substantial public funding Public funding is money given from tax revenue or other governmental sources to an individual, organization, or entity. See alsoPublic funding of sports venues Research funding Funding body especially for basic researchin an age when universities are becoming more oriented o��ri��ent?n.1. Orient The countries of Asia, especially of eastern Asia.2. a. The luster characteristic of a pearl of high quality.b. A pearl having exceptional luster.3. to economic andindustrial needs, and about how universities balance theirresponsibilities to basic research, applied research, advanced levelresearch training and knowledge transfer (Organisation for EconomicCo-operation and Development The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), (in French: Organisation de coop��ration et de d��veloppement ��conomiques; OCDE) is an international organisation of thirty countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market (OECD). With government funding forresearch in many countries becoming increasingly mission-oriented andcontract-based, there is more emphasis on outputs and performancecriteria. Traditional approaches Over the past three decades or so, within the higher educationsystems of OECD countries, governments, funding agencies anduniversities have depended largely on six main mechanisms to ensure highquality in research activity and output: * competitive allocation of research funding to institutions basedon research performance; * competitive funding of research projects and programs using peerreview; * use of peer review process by scholarly journals for publicationof research papers; * the international system of citation indices; * use of performance indicators; and * reviews usually with at least some external members on panels. Generally the use of these mechanisms evolved in a rather haphazard hap��haz��ard?adj.Dependent upon or characterized by mere chance. See Synonyms at chance.n.Mere chance; fortuity.adv.By chance; casually. way rather than being planned systematically, but until a decade or soago, many higher education systems and institutions considered thattogether they provided adequate safeguards about quality. In addition,many university leaders argued that, if any additional measures ofquality assurance were necessary, such measures should primarily dealwith the areas of teaching and learning. The six mechanisms listed have all been in frequent use inAustralia at both national and state levels for a considerable period oftime. For example, in 1964 with the establishment of the AustralianResearch Grants Committee by the Commonwealth Government, a mechanismwas adopted for the competitive allocation of research project fundsbased on the well-tried system of detailed applications and peer reviewby highly qualified researchers. Citation indices have been frequentlyused within many disciplines, but this system has generally not beenapplied more generally across institutions or the higher educationsystem, especially for allocating research funds, since it caters wellfor research in only a limited number of disciplines. However, over thepast decade, both nationally and within institutions, Australian highereducation has shown considerable enthusiasm for the use of performanceindicators. Indeed, on a number of occasions, DEETYA has publishedvarious indicators which have included such research measures forindividual institutions as total external funds External fundsFunds originating from a source outside the corporation to increase cash flow and to aid in expansion efforts, e.g., bank loan or bond offering.external fundsThe funds that are raised from sources outside a firm. received and theResearch Quantum allocation as a proportion of operating funds (e.g.DEETYA, 1993, 1998). Reviews of the higher education system have beenset up from time to time by both national and state governments and inaddition the former Commonwealth Tertiary Education Tertiary education, also referred to as third-stage, third level education, or higher education, is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, or gymnasium. Commission (CTEC CTEC Course and Teacher Evaluation Council (Northwestern University, Office of the Register)CTEC Certified Technical Education CenterCTEC Certified Technical Education Center (Microsoft))instituted a series of disciplinary reviews which covered both teachingand research. The ARC has undertaken its own disciplinary reviews ofAustralian research and, for a period, the Australian Vice-ChancellorsCommittee (AVCC AVCC Australian Vice-Chancellors' CommitteeAVCC Average Carbonaceous ChondritesAVCC Audio Visual Consultant CenterAVCC anti Virus Control Center ) undertook reviews of honours honoursor US honorsNoun, pl1. (in a university degree course) a rank or mark of the highest academic standard: an honours degree2. observances of respect, esp. work (including thesisresearch) in a number of basic disciplines. Apart from the use of the above six mechanisms, to a large extentunrelated efforts have been made in Australia to strengthen researchmanagement by requiring all institutions to have research managementplans, to introduce and then strengthen ethical clearance procedures forresearch involving both animal and human subjects, and to establishcodes of conduct for research and researchers. The requirement forinstitutions to develop research management plans was initiated by theformer CTEC but, following the Dawkins Dawkins is an English surname. It is a compound of 'Daw', a common diminutive of 'David' during the Middle Ages, and Kin; literally "the kin of David". It has also been linked with the Keynes family as a derivative name. It may refer to: Benjamin C. Dawkins, Jr. reforms, this became part of theprofile documentation required annually from institutions. Ethicalclearance procedures emerged mainly from the joint but somewhatdifferent concerns of university researchers, the National Health andMedical Research Council The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is Australia's peak funding body for medical research, with a budget of nearly A$500M a year . The Council was established to develop and maintain health standards and is responsible for implementing the (NHMRC NHMRC National Health and Medical Research Council ) and animal welfare interest groups and,in some Australian states Noun 1. Australian state - one of the several states constituting Australiaprovince, state - the territory occupied by one of the constituent administrative districts of a nation; "his state is in the deep south" , resulted in new legislation being enacted toregulate research involving animals, whereas the codes of conduct camemainly from the initiatives of the NHMRC and the AVCC. New approaches of the quality assurance movement Over the past decade or so, the quality assurance movement, whichhas captured attention in most industrialised Adj. 1. industrialised - made industrial; converted to industrialism; "industrialized areas"industrializedindustrial - having highly developed industries; "the industrial revolution"; "an industrial nation" countries, has producednew mechanisms at both national and institutional levels. Although thefocus has been largely on the quality of teaching, the new qualityassurance mechanisms have also covered other areas of universityactivity including research, community service and management. The actual mechanisms used in different countries varyconsiderably, but at the national level, the two most common mechanismswhich include research are: * `horizontal' reviews of disciplines (i.e. reviews ofparticular academic disciplines across all or some institutions); and * `vertical' academic audits of quality assurance mechanismswithin particular institutions. Some countries have used one or other of these mechanisms, whereasothers, such as the United Kingdom, have used both. Some reviewmechanisms focus on research or include research, whereas othersconcentrate on teaching and learning. Table 2 attempts to summarise Verb 1. summarise - be a summary of; "The abstract summarizes the main ideas in the paper"sum, sum up, summarizesum up, summarize, summarise, resume - give a summary (of); "he summed up his results"; "I will now summarize" inmuch greater detail the variety of approaches and mechanisms used atnational level which focus on research, or which include research. Table 2 National approaches to quality assurance for research A Responsible agency/unit * Unit or section within a government department or agency * Separate quality assurance agency established by government * Agency established by a group or association of higher educationinstitutions * Agency established jointly by government and higher educationinstitutions B Methodologies of review and assessment * Self study or self evaluation * Peer review by panels of experts, usually including externalpanel members * Analysis of statistical information and/or and/or?conj.Used to indicate that either or both of the items connected by it are involved.Usage Note: And/or is widely used in legal and business writing. use of performanceindicators C Focus * National reviews of disciplines - reviews of research only - reviews of teaching only - reviews of both research and teaching * Institutional evaluations - reviews of quality assuranceprocesses and/or outcomes - reviews of teaching and/or research * National evaluations of the higher education system D Purposes * Accountability * Improvement and renewal * Combination of purposes E Reporting and follow-up activities * Report provided solely to the institution concerned * Report provided to the institution but also published or mademore widely available * Formal reports provided to the minister, ministry, highereducation funding agency * Public reporting * Use of ranking and wide publication of such ranking * Performance funding * Accreditation accreditation,n a process of formal recognition of a school or institution attesting to the required ability and performance in an area of education, training, or practice. or validation See validate. validation - The stage in the software life-cycle at the end of the development process where software is evaluated to ensure that it complies with the requirements. Responsibility The most common pattern is for quality assurance reviews to be theresponsibility of a regular government department or agency, or of aspecial quality assurance body set up by the government. In Sweden Sweden,Swed. Sverige, officially Kingdom of Sweden, constitutional monarchy (2005 est. pop. 9,002,000), 173,648 sq mi (449,750 sq km), N Europe, occupying the eastern part of the Scandinavian peninsula. , forexample, control of quality assurance lies with the Swedish NationalHigher Education Agency, whereas, in France and Denmark Denmark(dĕn`märk), Dan. Danmark, officially Kingdom of Denmark, kingdom (2005 est. pop. 5,432,000), 16,629 sq mi (43,069 sq km), N Europe. , specialgovernment agencies have been established and, in Finland Finland,Finnish Suomi (swô`mē), officially Republic of Finland, republic (2005 est. pop. 5,223,000), 130,119 sq mi (337,009 sq km), N Europe. , disciplinaryevaluations of research activities are carried out by the Academy ofFinland The Academy of Finland (Finnish: Suomen Akatemia) is a governmental funding body for scientific research in Finland. It is based in the Finnish capital, Helsinki. Yearly, the Academy administers over 200 million euros to Finnish research activities. Over 3. using panels of foreign research experts (Linna, 1993). One of the major issues concerning government quality assuranceagencies is what degree of independence they have, and should have, bothfrom ministers and from major ministries and departments. Essentially,the main arguments for a high degree of independence for such agenciesare that independence will lead to greater trust and confidence withininstitutions, and enhance professional judgements, whereas the maincontrary view is that a high measure of government control is desirableto ensure integration of quality assurance more closely with planningand coordination. In Australia, the program of national quality auditsconducted between 1993 and 1995 was the responsibility of a ministerialcommittee The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page.A Ministerial Committee is a committee consisting of Ministers of government portfolio. which had considerable independence and reported directly tothe minister. At the same time, the committee was subject to directivesby the minister, while its membership included senior public servantsand its key decisions took the form of recommendations to the minister(Harman, 1996a). However, an agency with a much greater degree ofindependence from the minister and the agencies of executive governmentis the French Comite National d'Evaluation (CNE (Certified NetWare Engineer) See Novell certification. ) which reportsdirectly to the President and is independent of the Prime Minister, theMinister of Education and executive agencies (van Vught, 1994). In a small number of countries, responsibility for aspects ofquality assurance at the national level is under the control of anagency set up by higher education institutions themselves. Such examplesare found in the Netherlands, Italy and New Zealand New Zealand(zē`lənd), island country (2005 est. pop. 4,035,000), 104,454 sq mi (270,534 sq km), in the S Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) SE of Australia. The capital is Wellington; the largest city and leading port is Auckland. (Malcom, 1993). Inthe Netherlands, the Netherlands, Theofficially Kingdom of The Netherlands byname HollandCountry, northwestern Europe. Area: 16,034 sq mi (41,528 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 16,300,000. Capital: Amsterdam. Seat of government: The Hague. Most of the people are Dutch. current system of quality assurance for both theuniversity and the non-university sectors sprang from a restructuring restructuring - The transformation from one representation form to another at the same relative abstraction level, while preserving the subject system's external behaviour (functionality and semantics). inthe mid- mid-pref.Middle: midbrain.1980s of the relationship between the Ministry of Education andScience and higher education institutions. An understanding wasdeveloped that, in exchange for a greater degree of financial andmanagerial autonomy, the institutions would demonstrate that they wereoffering quality education. Originally it was planned that thisassessment would be a responsibility of the Inspectorate in��spec��tor��ate?n.1. The office or duties of an inspector.2. A staff of inspectors.3. An inspector's district.inspectorateNoun1. for HigherEducation but, in the end, after negotiations, the two voluntary bodiesrepresenting higher education institutions in both university andnon-university sectors respectively agreed to take responsibility.However, follow-up activities are the responsibility of the Inspectorateof Higher Education, an independent body set up by the government(Zijderveld, 1997). An example of joint control is in Korea where responsibility lieswith both the Ministry of Education and the Korean Council forUniversity Education. The Ministry and the Council jointly decideannually which university departments will be evaluated and, after eachevaluation, staff of the Council review the reports of panels andproduce total scores for each department, leading to grading ofdepartments as good, moderate, or poor. The list of `good'departments is announced by the Ministry and all reports and otherdocumentation are considered by the Ministry of Education'sAdvisory Council for Higher Education in relation to funding allocations(Lee, 1993). An important variation between quality assurance programs iswhether participation is voluntary or compulsory Wikipedia does not currently have an encyclopedia article for .You may like to search Wiktionary for "" instead.To begin an article here, feel free to [ edit this page], but please do not create a mere dictionary definition. . Many European Europeanemanating from or pertaining to Europe.European bat lyssavirussee lyssavirus.European beech treefagussylvaticus.European blastomycosissee cryptococcosis. countries began with institutional audits on a voluntary basis. Thus, inBritain, the institutional audits run by the Academic Audit Unit (AAU AAUabbr.Amateur Athletic Union )were voluntary (Williams, 1991), and the Research Assessment Exercise(RAE) run by the Higher Education Funding Council Funding Council may refer to: Higher Education Funding Council for England, a public body of the Department for Education and Skills in the United Kingdom Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, an intermediary body in Wales of England for thefunding councils continues to be based on the principle of voluntaryparticipation. In Finland, when the Ministry of Education launched itsprogram of university reviews in 1991 on an experimented basis, twouniversities -- Oulu and Jyvaskyala -- volunteered to be involved. Whenthe Evaluation Centre was set up in Denmark, one of its three guidingprinciples was that participation would be voluntary (Thune, 1994).Generally, however, there is a move to requiring universityparticipation. Methodologies Although a variety of methodologies are employed in various reviewsand assessments, most depend on one or a combination of a limited numberof key methodologies, the most important of which are self studies orself-evaluation; peer review by panels of experts including someexternal members; the use of relevant statistical information andperformance indicators; and surveys of key groups, such as students,graduates and employers. Reviews of research or reviews involvingresearch generally depend on self studies, peer review, and the use ofstatistical information and performance indicators. Over many years, self studies have proved particularly effectiveand cost efficient since the main work is done internally, often withlittle additional resources being necessary. Self studies also usuallyachieve a high degree of ownership, since key staff are heavily involvedand such involvement increases the chances of substantial improvementbeing achieved. Further, the overall process of assessment is made lessthreatening when emphasis is placed on self-evaluation. On the otherhand, experience points to the value of combining self studies with someelement of external peer review in order to bring in outsideperspectives and ensure that a self study is taken seriously. Peer review by outside experts is a well-established academicprocess, particularly in the research area. With regard to qualityassurance, peer review in combination with self studies generally workswell as long as external panel members recognise that self-evaluationimplies respect for the values of those being evaluated and accept thatone of the panel's main contributions is assisting inself-learning. At the same time, it must be recognised that peer reviewcan easily introduce outside values and constructs. Most evaluations combine self study with the use of statisticalinformation and/or performance indicators, and now frequently theresults of surveys of students, graduates and employers. In some cases,a national program of reviews is accompanied by the use of nationalstatistical collections and published performance indicators. In thecase of France, for example, the CNE quality assessment disciplinaryreviews begin with self-evaluation reports produced by the institutionsbeing reviewed and statistical reports produced by the CNE, governmentoffices and the institution (van Vught, 1994). In Finland, an extensivenationwide university data base (KOTA Kota(kō`tə), city (1991 pop. 537,371), Rajasthan state, NW India, on the Chambal River. Kota, enclosed by a massive wall, is a district administrative center and a market for sugarcane, oilseed, and building stone. ) was established containing keystatistics about university performance by institutions and disciplines(Liuhanen, 1997). This covers a range of areas including researchervisits abroad and scientific publications. Focus As already noted, at the national level the most common forms ofassessment are `horizontal' reviews of disciplines and`vertical' evaluations of institutions. Reviews of disciplines areusually carried out by panels of experts using site visits and analysisof documentary information, much of which is usually produced by theacademic units being reviewed. Some disciplinary reviews concentrate onteaching only, some on research only, while many look at both teachingand research. In the United Kingdom, separate horizonal reviews on adisciplinary basis have been made of both teaching and research butcurrently the arrangements are under review. Generally disciplinaryreviews result in published reports, often with detailed comments beingmade on the work within each department or faculty that has beenevaluated. The most common form of institutional reviews are academic auditsof quality assurance processes developed first in the United Kingdom bythe former Academic Audit Unit. Under this approach, the focus is ameta-evaluation of the mechanisms and approaches to quality assurancemanagement, rather than on assessment of the quality achieved.Institutions are visited by small teams of academics, following a`negotiated invitation', and these teams make an on-site auditusing a check-list of good practice. A general report is prepared forthe university as a whole, and confidential reports on sensitive issuesare produced for the vice-chancellor VICE-CHANCELLOR. The title of a judicial officer who decides causes depending in the court of chancery; his opinions may be reversed, discharged or altered by the chancellor. . In a number of countries including Australia, New Zealand and theUnited Kingdom, there is a long tradition of periodic national,comprehensive reviews of higher education, often conducted by specialcommittees or panels, but frequently such reviews are not seen as partof quality assurance measures. However, in Sweden, the brief of the newSwedish New Swedish (Swedish: nysvenska) is the linguistic term used for the Swedish language from the Bible translation of 1526 to the development of a common national language around 1880. National Higher Education Agency includes investigating andevaluating the higher education system and its results in relation tothe society's overarching o��ver��arch��ing?adj.1. Forming an arch overhead or above: overarching branches.2. Extending over or throughout: "I am not sure whether the missing ingredient . . . general goals for higher education(Asking & Bauer, 1997). Purposes Quality assurance programs serve a variety of purposes butgenerally their primary purpose is a combination of publicaccountability, improvement and renewal. In some cases, there is a gapbetween the stated purposes and what the actual purposes of a programare and, as a number of writers have pointed out, there is often tensionbetween accountability and improvement purposes (Thune, 1997).Frequently the stated purpose of a national quality assurance program islinked to a particular philosophical approach to evaluation and toparticular views about the role of government in the control of highereducation. As already noted, the current system of quality assurance inthe Netherlands was clearly linked to a new philosophy about therelationship between the state and higher education institutions andbased on a belief that the assessment process should be as non-invasive Non-invasiveA procedure that does not penetrate the body.Mentioned in: Multiple-Gated Acquisition Scannon-invasive1. not penetrating the skin, e.g. a non-invasive test.2. as possible (van Vught, 1994). Similarly, in the case of Sweden, theapproach adopted by the Swedish National Higher Education Agency stemsfrom the transition from ex-ante Ex-AnteA term that refers to future events, such as future returns or prospects of a company. Using ex-ante analysis helps to give an idea of future movements in price or the future impact of a newly implemented policy. regulation to devolution devolutionn. the transfer of rights, powers, or an office (public or private) from one person or government to another. (See: devolve) DEVOLUTION, eccl. law. of authorityand ex-post Ex-PostAnother term for actual returns.Notes:Ex-post translated from Latin means "after the fact." Companies may try to obtain ex-post data to forecast future earnings.See also: Actual Return, Ex-Ante control (Bauer & Franke-Wikberg, 1993). Although theAgency has a number of functions including both enhancing andcontrolling quality, to date it has given clear priority to supportingand enhancing activities. Reporting and follow-up Reporting and follow-up activities are important parts of anyworthwhile quality assurance program, but a major challenge is to devisefair and effective methods which are likely to lead to improvement but,at the same time, are not likely to be unduly damaging to theinstitution or unit being reviewed. A variety of approaches is widelyused with regard to the distribution of reports. In some cases, reportson assessment are provided solely to the institution or the unitconcerned, but increasingly the practice is to make the results morewidely available. At national level, reports for institutionalevaluations or disciplinary reviews now are frequently provided toministers, and ministries and funding agencies. Although participants inthe institution or department being assessed often wish to limitcirculation of their report, particularly if it includes criticalcomments, the demands of accountability usually require widercirculation. Associated with this is a difficulty often experienced byreview panels in preparing reports which will be considered by differentstakeholders. In some cases, a system of ranking based on performance in relationto established criteria is used. In the United Kingdom, participatinguniversity departments are ranked in separate reviews of performance forboth teaching and research, and the results of these are publiclyannounced. In Australia, in the three reviews conducted in the period1993-95, institutions were ranked on their performance in relation tostated criteria. Although such systems rankings may be supported onaccountability arguments, they can inflict major damage on weakerinstitutions or departments. In a minority of cases, some element of performance funding is usedas part of a quality assurance program. In the United Kingdom,performance in research as measured by the RAE is used as the basis ofallocating substantial research funding to institutions (McNay, 1997),whereas in Australia, with the 1993-1995 program of national qualityassurance, a sum of between $50 million and $77 million was allocated ineach of three successive annual rounds (Committee for Quality Assurance,1995). In the United States United States,officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , performance funding has been used for manyyears by the state of Tennessee Tennessee, state, United StatesTennessee(tĕn`əsē', tĕn'əsē`), state in the south-central United States. to improve higher education by adoptinga single set of outcomes and rewarding institutions for theirperformance (El-Khawas, 1997). In a limited number of cases, the final result is accreditation orvalidation of the program or institution. Accreditation has had a longhistory in the United States and usually involves a process of selfreview by the organisation or unit seeking accreditation, resulting inthe development of extensive documentation with detail on goals,resources, facilities and internal evaluation mechanisms, as well asassessments of achievements in relation to goals. Production of the selfstudy is usually followed by a visit of a team of external assessors anda final decision, based on an assessment in relation to specifiedcriteria. Over the past decade, important changes have been made inresponse to public criticism in the traditional American approach toaccreditation. This has led many regional accreditation Regional accreditation is a term used in the United States to refer to the process by which one of several accrediting bodies, each serving one of six defined geographic areas of the country, accredits schools, colleges, and universities. associations torevise key elements of their approach, resulting in more emphasis onassessment of quality management mechanisms, reconsideration re��con��sid��er?v. re��con��sid��ered, re��con��sid��er��ing, re��con��sid��ersv.tr.1. To consider again, especially with intent to alter or modify a previous decision.2. of thepractice of making reports available only to the institution concerned,and making the results of accreditation processes more generallyavailable to the public (Crow, 1994). Accreditation systems on theAmerican model have been established in many countries of Asia and LatinAmerica Latin America,the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. (e.g. Arcelo, 1992; Ayaraza, 1994). Australian quality assurance program, 1993-95, in relation toresearch Reference has been made already to the quality assurance programwhich operated nationally in Australia from 1993 until 1995 under theformer Labor Government. This program was based on an annual academicaudit of participating institutions focusing on both quality assuranceprocesses and quality outcomes, but it was distinctively different fromthose developed in other OECD countries in that it included: * publication of the individual detailed annual reports on eachinstitution; * the ranking of institutions into groups or bands on the basis ofannual assessments, and publication of details on these rankings; and * a substantial element of performance funding with the fundingcoming from a special additional government allocation. The first round of audits focused generally on quality assurance ina range of areas including research, the second focused on teaching andlearning, and the third focused on research and community service. Thissystem was very different from the system of academic audits asoriginally developed in the United Kingdom, which were operated by aunit set up by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals with theaudits being periodic and with the results going only to the universityconcerned. Why such an unusual program as the Australian one of 1993 to 1995emerged is a complicated story. In essence the Minister in charge ofhigher education activities, Peter Baldwin This is an article about the actor, for the Australian Labor politician, see Peter Baldwin (Australian politician)Peter Baldwin (born 29 July 1933, Chichester, West Sussex, England) is a British actor. , needed to establish a`tough' quality assurance program to help his arguments in Cabinetfor additional funding for higher education, and the universities werepersuaded to accept such a scheme by the promise of substantialadditional funding for the program. Both critics and supporters agreethat the positive effects on universities of the program weresubstantial, leading particularly to a more serious approach toevaluation and quality assurance, increased emphasis on the assessmentof outputs and client satisfaction, and more serious attempts atachieving integrated strategic planning Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. linked to annual budgeting. Atthe same time, the program had serious adverse effects on thereputations of lower performing universities, on the morale of theirstaff, and on their ability to attract both students and staff. In termsof research management, substantial achievements included enhancedresearch management plans, review and documentation of researchmanagement policies, and much greater use of performance indicators andbenchmarking. Throughout the 1980s, various initiatives had been taken inAustralia to strengthen evaluation and quality assurance in highereducation, but by the 1990s the Commonwealth Government recognised thata more systemic systemic/sys��tem��ic/ (sis-tem��ik) pertaining to or affecting the body as a whole. sys��tem��icadj.1. Of or relating to a system.2. approach was needed. In the document, Higher education:Quality and diversity, Minister Baldwin (1991) stated that there wasconcern that, in the recent rapid expansion, `quality had beensacrificed to numbers' and that the Government considered itnecessary to `implement measures specifically designed to provide adegree of quality assurance at both institutional level and for thehigher education system as a whole' (p.3). After extensive consultation with the higher education sector, theMinister announced in October 1991 that the Government had decided toestablish an academic audit scheme, which would include institutionalvisits by panels, the ranking of institutions, and special funding forallocation each year. Details for the operation of the scheme were drawnup by the Higher Education Council which recommended appointment of aspecial Ministerial Committee which would: (a) invite universities to participate in regular review and auditof their mechanisms for monitoring and improving quality of theiroutcomes; (b) examine portfolios submitted by universities showing thequality assurance and quality improvement mechanisms in place; (c) conduct interviews and visits and evaluate how institutionshave assessed the effects of their policies and processes; and (d) recommend to the Minister on the allocation of speciallydesignated funds to universities to recognise achievements demonstratedby the effectiveness of policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental through an evaluation oftheir assessment of the quality of their outcomes. (Higher EducationCouncil, 1992, p. 80) These recommendations were essentially accepted and a Committee forQuality Assurance in Higher Education was appointed, with a seniorVice-Chancellor (Brian Wilson of the University of Queensland The University of Queensland (UQ) is the longest-established university in the state of Queensland, Australia, a member of Australia's Group of Eight, and the Sandstone Universities. It is also a founding member of the international Universitas 21 organisation. as chair).Of its other seven members, four were senior university staff members,two were from industry, and one was a senior official of the Departmentof Employment, Education and Training. It was decided that the programwould operate for three years, followed by a review, and that, incarrying out its work, the Committee would use existing, nationallybased, data (Committee for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, 1993,attachment B). Originally the idea was that the focus would be onquality assurance processes but just as the first round was to commence,Kim Beazley For Kim Beazley's father, Kim Beazley senior, see Kim Edward Beazley. Kim Christian Beazley (born 14 December 1948), son of Kim Edward Beazley, is an Australian politician, who was Leader of the Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition , as the new Minister responsible for higher education,agreed to a request from the Committee that the focus should be on bothquality assurance processes and outcomes. This was a fundamental changewhich clearly advantaged the well-established universities. Although participation was voluntary, for each of the three roundsall universities participated. By far the most controversial feature wasthe ranking of institutions into different groups or bands. For thefirst round, institutions were placed in six different bands. All sixinstitutions placed in the top band were well-established majoruniversities located in capital cities, whereas all institutions in thebottom category were relatively small, new universities. Category twosurprisingly contained three universities -- the University of Sydney The University of Sydney, established in Sydney in 1850, is the oldest university in Australia. It is a member of Australia's "Group of Eight" Australian universities that are highly ranked in terms of their research performance. (Australia's oldest university), Monash University Facilities in are diverse and vary in services offered. Information on residential sevices at Monash University, including on-campus (MRS managed) and off-campus, can be found at [2] Student organisations (the universitywith the largest student enrolments), and the University of Wollongong HistoryThe University of Wollongong was founded in 1951 when a Division of the then New South Wales University of Technology (re-named the University of New South Wales in 1958) was established in Wollongong. (a relatively new regional university). The results were widely reportedin the national media and caused considerable controversy. For the second round, participating institutions were placed inthree bands, with the sixteen institutions in the top band sharing 63per cent ($45 million) of the total sum available. Twelve institutionswere placed in the second group and eight institutions in the bottomgroup. Again the same pattern emerged -- the institutions in the topgroup were mainly large, well-established, old universities, while thosein the bottom group were mainly small and/or new. The 1995 review focused on research and community service.According to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. the guidelines guidelines,n.pl a set of standards, criteria, or specifications to be used or followed in the performance of certain tasks. , institutions were requested to giveparticular attention to research management, research outcomes, researchimprovement, and community service. With regard to research, particularattention was given by the Committee in its assessment to researchculture and the concentration of research effort, research managementplans, research centres and processes in place for their review,research linkages, postgraduate postgraduateafter first degree graduation, the registerable degree in veterinary science.postgraduate degreemay be a research degree, e.g. PhD, or a course-work masterate with a vocational bias, or any combination of these. supervision, the use of performanceindicators, benchmarking and internal funding mechanisms. In reviewingquality assurance processes, the Committee later reported that it hadlooked particularly closely at: the relationship of the research management plan to the university's strategic plan and its budget processes; research management organisation; research training; the management and development of research infrastructure; commercialisation of research; ethics; and management of staff development, equity and intellectual property. (Committee for Quality Assurance, 1995, p. 6). In assessing outcomes, the Committee considered reports from thereview teams but also placed considerable emphasis on quantitativenational data, particularly data on research income, publications,higher degree completions, the Research Quantum as a percentage ofoperating income Operating IncomeThe profit realized from a business' own operations.Notes:This would not include income from things such as investments in other firms. Also referred to as operating profit or recurring profit. , and research trends (e.g. improvements). Unlike the two earlier rounds, institutions were not given anoverall ranking, but rather were placed in bands relating to relating torelate prep → concernantrelating torelate prep → bez��glich +gen, mit Bezug auf +accthe fourkey areas reviewed. As in previous rounds, the seven or eight oldestablished universities did best. On this occasion, however, thedifferential in funding allocated to institutions was considerably less,with the largest individual allocation being $3 273 000 and the smallest$489 000. Research Quantum The Research Quantum is a proportion of the total operating grantto universities which is ear-marked for the support of researchactivities. Although it was introduced as part of new fundingarrangements to place the allocation of resources allocation of resourcesApportionment of productive assets among different uses. The issue of resource allocation arises as societies seek to balance limited resources (capital, labour, land) against the various and often unlimited wants of their members. to institutions on amore equitable equitableadj. 1) just, based on fairness and not legal technicalities. 2) refers to positive remedies (orders to do something, not money damages) employed by the courts to solve disputes or give relief. (See: equity) EQUITABLE. basis in the post-binary Unified Higher Education Systemfollowing the Dawkins reforms, it has come to operate as quite apowerful evaluation mechanism for research performance. The Green Paper produced by John Dawkins John Sydney "Joe" Dawkins, AO (born 2 March 1947), Australian politician, was Treasurer in the Keating Labor government from December 1991 to December 1993.Dawkins was born in Perth, Western Australia, a member of Western Australia's wealthy landed elite. as Minister forEmployment, Education and Training in 1987 had indicated that therelative funding base of institutions varied by up to 35 per cent. Thusa number of studies of past trends in funding were undertaken, and thisled in 1990 to adoption of the Relative Funding Model as the basis forfuture institutional funding. Under this model, 94 per cent of totaloperating grant funding was to be allocated on the basis of studentenrolments and the remainder (6 per cent), which came to be referred toas the Research Quantum, on the basis of research achievement(Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, 1993,pp. 88-90). The funding for teaching was to be allocated on the basis ofa matrix which provided differential weightings for both disciplinarygroups and level of student enrolment, whereas the Research Quantum wasto be allocated solely to `old' universities on the basis of thesimple indicator of total Commonwealth Competitive Research Grantsattracted. The Research Quantum was based on an estimation estimationIn mathematics, use of a function or formula to derive a solution or make a prediction. Unlike approximation, it has precise connotations. In statistics, for example, it connotes the careful selection and testing of a function called an estimator. that some 6per cent of operating costs operating costsnpl → gastos mpl operacionalesof the old universities had been availableto support research activities over and above the teaching elementattached to higher degree load. The Research Quantum allocations to universities remained constantfor some years, but more recently DEETYA opened competition to alluniversities for the total sum available and, since then, has madeannual adjustments based on use of a formula known as the CompositeIndex. Currently the Composite Index includes both input and outputmeasures. The input measures which account for 82.5 per cent of theindex are made up of National Competitive Grants, other governmentfunding, and industry funding. Outputs comprise publications (12.5 percent) and research higher degree completions (5 per cent). As a result of strong pressure from the AVCC, the weighting givento publications has been gradually increased and, until recently, therewas a clear intention that the total weighting for outputs wouldincrease fairly quickly until it reached 50 per cent of the index.However, following calls from a number of universities for an audit ofpublications, the accounting firm of KPMG KPMG Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (accounting firm)KPMG Kaiser Permanente Medical GroupKPMG Keiner Pr��ft Mehr Genau (German)KPMG Kommen Pr��fen Meckern Gehen was engaged by DEETYA first,to carry out an audit of publications in a sample of institutions, andthen, in 1997, to carry out an audit of publications in allinstitutions. The high rate of errors found in both audits (59 per centoverall in the 1996 audit, and 34 per cent overall in the 1997 audit)has raised serious doubts about the future of the publications componentof the Composite Index. Politically, major stakeholders recognise thatit is indefensible to continue to use publications data to allocate To reserve a resource such as memory or disk. See memory allocation. some$27 million of the total Quantum annually, when the lists ofpublications have been shown to be so unreliable. As a result of the problems with the publications audit, the futureof the Research Quantum is by no means certain. The current total sumallocated annually is about $220 million, which represents about 4.9 percent of the operating grant (compared with 6 per cent initially).However, the actual allocations to individual institutions varyconsiderably, with the percentage of the total operating funds yieldedfrom the Research Quantum varying in 1995 from 0.26 per cent (yielding$140 000) for the Australian Catholic University The University was formed in 1991 by the amalgamation of four Catholic institutes of higher education in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory. to over 11 per cent(yielding $14.15 million) for the University of Adelaide Its main campus is located on the cultural boulevard of North Terrace in the city-centre alongside prominent institutions such as the Art Gallery of South Australia, the South Australian Museum and the State Library of South Australia. (Committee forQuality Assurance, 1995, p. 19). In their submissions to the Review ofHigher Education Financing and Policy (1998), most of the `sandstone sandstone,sedimentary rock formed by the cementing together of grains of sand. The usual cementing material in sandstone is calcium carbonate, iron oxides, or silica, and the hardness of sandstone varies according to the character of the cementing material; quartz universities' argued that the Research Quantum should be increasedto 15 or 20 per cent of the total operating grant, which would have theeffect of substantially moving research resources away from the neweruniversities. The Review did not accept this recommendation, leavinganother issue about the Research Quantum unresolved Not completed; not finished; not linked together. See resolve. . Apart from these issues, the Research Quantum has come to beregarded as one of the main national indicators for assessinginstitutional performance in research. Data on the Composite Index andindividual Research Quantum allocations are readily available and arepublished regularly in the national press. One consequence is that, inmost universities, there is tremendous pressure on academics and theirdepartments to improve performance especially in relation to attractingexternal research income and publications output. It is widely believedthat many productive academics have adjusted their publicationstrategies in order to maximise their department's research output,such as publishing chapters of a book in progress as journal articlesprior to publication of the full book. The future The three-year Australian quality assurance program ended inDecember 1995 with publication of the results for the third round and,since then, what kind of program should follow has been under activediscussion. Detail on future directions, however, is currently by nomeans clear. Prior to losing office in March 1996, the Labor Government began areview of the 1993-95 program. This was not complete when the CoalitionGovern-ment took office, and it was not until August 1996, as part ofcontroversial budget announcements, that the Coalition Minister forEmployment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Senator AmandaVanstone Amanda Eloise Vanstone (born 7 December 1952) is a former Australian politician and the current Ambassador to Italy, taking office in June 2007. She was a Liberal Senator for South Australia from 1984 to 2007, and held several ministerial portfolios in the Howard Government. (1996), announced that the key elements of the new program ofquality assurance would be: * the development by institutions of quality improvement plans thatare integrated into their overall strategic planning processes ...; * the encouragement of institutional diversity by enablinginstitutions to develop approaches to quality improvement consistentwith their particular missions and varied goals; * a quality assessment process that, as far as practicable practicableadj. when something can be done or performed. , ishard-edged through the application of quantitative performanceindicators and benchmarks which are carefully selected, genuinelymeaningful, and recognise institutional diversity; and * the development of quality improvement plans by institutions thatconcentrate on addressing institutional weaknesses as well as buildingon strengths. (pp. 13-14) Senator Vanstone said that `a higher education sector of thehighest quality is central to the Government's overall policy'but that the program of the previous Government was: fundamentally flawed and unsustainable over the longer term. It relied on a substantial, separate pool of funds to ensure institutional involvement in a process that was externally imposed and which, at least implicitly, assumed that all institutions could be ranked against a common set of criteria. (p 13) The Higher Education Council was given responsibility forimplementation of the new program and in 1997, as part of their profilesdocumentation, universities were required to submit a copy of theirstrategic plan and a statement covering: * the information and the key indicators that institutionsthemselves use to judge their performance; * current outcomes and intended improvements; and * improvements which have taken place since the previous qualityassurance program. More recently, the Higher Education Council has effectively becomedysfunctional dys��func��tionalso dis��func��tion ?n.Abnormal or impaired functioning, especially of a bodily system or social group.dys��func with the expiry of the appointment of its Chair and anumber of its members, and Vanstone was replaced as Minister by DavidKemp This article is about the Australian politician David Kemp. For the english footballer, see David Kemp (footballer).Dr David Alistair Kemp . In a recent statement, Minister Kemp n. 1. Coarse, rough hair in wool or fur, injuring its quality. gave some clues to theGovernment's current thinking about quality assurance, but did notspell out detail (Kemp, 1998). Kemp emphasised the importance of qualityassurance but linked quality assurance closely with consumer choicewhich, in turn, in his view demanded that institutions provide clearerstatements of course objectives and content, and overall moreinformation about courses to students. Significantly, theMinister's statement mentioned the need for improvements inresearch supervision but did not say anything at all about qualityassurance in relation to research. Currently neither the Government nor the Opposition appear to haveclearly thought out detailed strategies for the future of qualityassurance for higher education. In any future national strategies,however, it is likely that more emphasis will be placed on teaching andmanagement, rather than on research. Perhaps the most likely factor toproduce change with regard to research is the current problems anddissatisfaction with the Research Quantum and with the Composite Indexused for its allocation. Some senior university staff have advocatedreplacement of the Research Quantum by something like the British RAEwhich is a discipline-based, thorough review of research withinindividual departments carried out every four years. The costs inrunning to RAE, however, are considerable; the 1996 RAE involved 69panels and over 600 people (McNay, 1997). One leading Australian scholar of research policy, Paul Bourke(1997), has pointed to the strengths of an RAE type assessment based onpeer review in contrast to the Australian Research Quantum which isbased solely on performance indicators. However he considers that an RAEtype approach would make sense only if it was used to allocatesubstantial funds, rather than the current 4.9 per cent of the operatinggrant (p. 26). With their post-binary higher education systems in whichthere are tremendous variations in institutional capacity andachievements in research, both the United Kingdom and Australia face thesame problem of needing a reliable mechanism, other than student loadwhich would be totally inappropriate, to allocate substantial researchfunding to institutions. In both countries, this is likely to remain akey quality assurance issue for research. Keywordsacademic staffevaluationpeer evaluationperformance indicatorsquality assuranceuniversity outcomes assessment References Arcelo, Adriano. (1992). Governance Governance makes decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists either of a separate process or of a specific part of management or leadership processes. Sometimes people set up a government to administer these processes and systems. and management issues inPhilippine higher education. Paper presented at World Bank Seminar,Singapore. Asking, Berit & Bauer, Mairanne. (1997). The role, functions,and the impact of a national agency in the evaluation of a decentralised Adj. 1. decentralised - withdrawn from a center or place of concentration; especially having power or function dispersed from a central to local authorities; "a decentralized school administration"decentralized higher education system. Paper presented at CHER conference, Alicante. Ayarza, Herman. (1994). Latin America. In Alma Craft (Ed.),International developments in assuring quality in higher education (pp.18-27). London: Falmer. Baldwin, The Hon Honabbr (= honourable, honorary) → en t��tulos . Peter. (1991). Higher education: Quality anddiversity in the 1990s: Policy statement by the ... Minister for HigherEducation and Employment Services. Canberra: AGPS AGPS Assisted Global Positioning SystemAGPS Advanced Government Purchasing SystemAGPS Advanced Geo Positioning Solutions, IncAGPS Advanced Global Positioning SystemAGPS Ameron Global Product SupportAGPS Attitude Global Positioning SystemAGPS Assisted Gps . Ball, C. (1985). Fitness for purpose. Guildford: SRHE SRHE Society for Research into Higher Education (UK)andNFER-Nelson. Bauer, Marianne & Franke-Wikberg, Sigbrit. (1993). Qualityassurance in Swedish higher education. Paper presented at the FirstBiennial biennial,plant requiring two years to complete its life cycle, as distinguished from an annual or a perennial. In the first year a biennial usually produces a rosette of leaves (e.g., the cabbage) and a fleshy root, which acts as a food reserve over the winter. Conference and General Conference of the International Networkof Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education, Montreal. Birnbaum, Robert. (1994). The quality cube cube,in geometry, regular solid bounded by six equal squares. All adjacent faces of a cube are perpendicular to each other; any one face of a cube may be its base. The dimensions of a cube are the lengths of the three edges which meet at any vertex. : How college presidentsassess excellence. Journal of Higher Education Management, 9 (3), 71-82. Brennan, John. (1997). Introduction. In John Brennan John Brennan may refer to:People John Calder Brennan, historian and Federal Reserve specialist. John G. Brennan, American actor, screenwriter and voice actor. John J. "Jack" Brennan (b. 1954), Chairman and CEO of The Vanguard Group. , Peter deVries Peter De Vries (February 27, 1910 - September 28, 1993) was an American editor and novelist known for his satiric wit. BiographyDe Vries was born in Chicago, Illinois of Dutch immigrant parents. , & Ruth Williams (Eds.), Standards and quality in highereducation (pp. 1-10). London: Jessica Kingsley. Bourke, Paul (1997). Evaluating university research: The BritishResearch Assessment Exercise and Australian practice. Canberra: NationalBoard of Employment, Education and Training. Committee for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. (1993).Quality assurance program: 1993 guidelines for higher educationinstitutions. Canberra: Department of Employment, Education andTraining. Committee for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. (1995). Reporton 1995 quality reviews: Vol. 1. Canberra: AGPS. Craft, A. (Ed.). (1992). Quality assurance in higher education.London: Falmer. Craft, A. (Ed.). (1994). International developments in assuringquality in higher education. London: Falmer. Crow, Stephen. (1994). Changing emphases in the USA. In Alma Craft(Ed.), International developments in assuring quality in highereducation (pp. 118-123). London: Falmer. Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs.(1993). National report on Australia's higher education sector.Canberra: AGPS. Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs.(1998). Higher education performance indicators: Data table. Canberra:Author. El-Khawas, Elaine. (1997). Strong state action but limited results:Perspectives on university performance. Revised version Revised Versionn.A British and American revision of the King James Version of the Bible, completed in 1885.Revised VersionNoun of paperpresented at CHER Conference, Alicante. Harman, Grant. (1996a). Quality assessment with nationalinstitutional rankings and performance funding: The Australianexperiment, 1993-1995. Higher Education Quarterly, 50 (4), 295-311. Harman, Grant. (1996b). Quality assurance for higher education:Developing and managing quality assurance for higher education systemsand institutions in Asia and the Pacific. Bangkok Bangkok(băng`kŏk'), Thai Krung Thep, city (1990 pop. 8,538,610), capital of Thailand and of Bangkok prov., SW Thailand, on the east bank of the Chao Phraya River, near the Gulf of Thailand. : Unesco PrincipalRegional Office for Asia and the Pacific. Kells, H. R. (1992). Self-regulation in higher education: Amultinational perspective on collaborative systems of quality assuranceand control. London: Jessica Kingsley. Kells, H. R. and van Vught, F. A. (Eds.). (1988). Self-regulation,self-study and program review in higher education. Utrecht: Lemma lemma(lĕm`ə): see theorem. (logic) lemma - A result already proved, which is needed in the proof of some further result. . Kemp, The Hon. David. (1998). Address to the OECD thematic the��mat��ic?adj.1. Of, relating to, or being a theme: a scene of thematic importance.2. seminaron the first years of tertiary education, Sydney, 21 April. Lee, Wha-kuk. (1993). Issues in the development of universityaccreditation in Korea. Paper presented at the First Biennial Conferenceand General Conference of the International Network of Quality AssuranceAgencies in Higher Education, Montreal. Lindsay, A. W. (1992). Concepts of quality in higher education.Journal of Tertiary Education Administration, 14 (2), 153-163. Linna, Markku. (1993). Pilot evaluations in Finland: Background andpurposes. Paper given at IMHE IMHE Institutional Management in Higher EducationIMHE In My Humble ExperienceIMHE Industrial Materials Handling Equipment Seminar on Quality Management and QualityAssurance in Higher Education, Paris. Liuhanen, Anna-Maija. (1997). Internal quality assurance in Finnishuniversities. Paper presented at CHER conference, Alicante. Malcom, Wilf. (1993). The development of an academic audit unit inNew Zealand. Paper presented to the First Biennial Conference andGeneral Conference of the International Network of Quality AssuranceAgencies in Higher Education, Montreal. McNay, Ian. (1997). The Impact of the 1992 RAE on institutional andindividual behaviour in English higher education: The evidence from aresearch report. Chelmsford: Anglia Polytechnic University Polytechnic University located in Brooklyn, NY The Hong Kong Polytechnic University located in Kowloon, Hong Kong Institute of technology is an institution focused on technology , Centre forHigher Education Management. Neave, G. (1997). The rise of the evaluative state: The state ofthe art. Paper presented at CHER Conference, Alicante. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, (1998).University research in transition. Paris: Author. Review of Higher Education Financing and Policy (R. West, Chair).(1998). Learning for life: Final report. Canberra: Department ofEmployment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs. Thune, Christian. (1994). Setting up the Danish Centre. In AlmaCraft (Ed.), International developments in assuring quality in highereducation (pp. 67-72). London: Falmer. Thune, Christian. (1997). The balance between accountability andimprovement: The Danish experience. In John Brennan, Peter de Vries, andRuth Williams (Eds.), Standards and quality in higher education (pp.87-103). London: Jessica Kingsley. van Vught, A. (1994). Western Europe Western EuropeThe countries of western Europe, especially those that are allied with the United States and Canada in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (established 1949 and usually known as NATO). and North America North America,third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. . In AlmaCraft (Ed.), International developments in assuring quality in highereducation (pp. 3-17). London: Falmer. van Vught, F. A. & Westerheijden, D. F. (1992). Qualitymanagement and quality assurance in European higher education: Methodsand mechanisms. Enschede: University of Twente (body, education) University of Twente - A university in the east of The Netherlands for technical and social sciences. It was founded in 1961, making it one of the youngest universities in The Netherlands. , Center for HigherEducation Policy Studies. Vanstone, Senator the Hon. Amanda. (1996). Higher education Budgetstatement, 9 August 1996. Canberra: AGPS. Williams, P. R. (1991). The CVCP CVCP Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals (UK)CVCP Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals (UK)CVCP Coding Violation C-bit - Path Academic Audit Unit. Birmingham:Academic Audit Unit. Zijderveld, Diederick C. (1997). External quality assessment inDutch higher education: Consultancy and watchdog roles. Higher EducationManagement, 9 (1), 31-41. Grant Harman is Professor of Educational Management at theUniversity of New England The University of New England can refer to: University of New England, Maine, in Biddeford, Maine University of New England, Australia, in New South Wales , Armidale, New South Wales Not to be confused with Armadale.Armidale (population 21,660) is a university and cathedral city in northern New South Wales, Australia, in Armidale Dumaresq Council. It is the administrative centre for the New England region. It is the seat of The University of New England. 2351.