The Quality Support Centre (QSC), part of Britain's Open University, is a center for higher education research and information. It specializes in two principal research areas: (1) systems and methods of quality assessment, assurance, and evaluation; and (2) issues of quality arising from the relationship between higher education and the world of work. A large part of QSC's activities are international. In 1997, QSC was engaged in the following international projects:

Within Britain, QSC has recently completed projects on work-based learning and the impact of quality assessment upon institutions. It is currently involved with a project on key skills development through work-based learning. Although many of QSC's activities are practical and developmental, they all lead to published reports. Some of these are published by QSC itself, and its Higher Education Reports series includes papers by international scholars, as well as QSC staff members.

QSC also publishes a regular information bulletin, the Higher Education Digest. The Digest contains around 40 brief information items on recent higher education developments. Items are grouped under general headings such as quality assurance; teaching, learning and assessment; policy and funding; curriculum development; higher education and work; recent statistics; and the contents of recent higher education journals. Although the emphasis is on developments within a British context, many of the items in each issue concern, or would be relevant to, higher education in other countries. The Higher Education Digest is available by subscription only and is published three times per year.

QSC also runs conferences and workshops, nationally and internationally. As a self-financing organization, its staff are available for consultancy and collaborative projects with higher education institutions and agencies all over the world.