International Higher Education, Winter 2004

National Leadership and International Quality Review in Higher Education

As national leaders in countries around the world continue to respond to questions about higher education operation and quality internationally, considerable debate has arisen over what role this national leadership itself plays in establishing expectations of quality in an international environment. How can national leaders build an international community and on what basis? What are the core commitments on which to base policies, practices, and values associated with quality in an international setting? “International quality review” or “quality review in an international setting” refers to the policies, practices, and procedures used by higher education and the quality assurance and accreditation community to scrutinize the quality of higher education institutions and programs choosing to operate internationally.

National Leadership
The primary task of creating an international culture for quality review falls to national leaders of both higher education and quality assurance. The leaders need to forge basic ties and connections among countries to create an international culture grounded in rigorous and responsive approaches to quality. Participants in this culture may include colleges, universities, accreditation and quality assurance bodies, national organizations working together, regional organizations, and international organizations. Its tools may be national and international clearinghouses, bilateral and multilateral quality assurance agreements, codes of practice, electronic databases, and other communication networks.

National leaders have considered several options about how to organize this important effort. These range from (1) national leaders creating appropriate networks to undertake international quality review, to (2) national leaders ceding responsibility for quality to an international quality assurance or accreditation entity of some sort, to (3) relying on other international organizations (rather than national leaders) to frame international quality review issues and approaches (e.g., the World Trade Organization).

National leaders also must address significant differences of opinion about standards for international quality review. Some quality assurance leaders favor a single template of standards to which all national quality assurance organizations (and thus higher education institutions) would be subject. Others are more comfortable with an organic model in which higher education institutions and quality assurance organizations in different countries would make individual judgments about quality and affiliate with each other on this basis--a multiple standards approach to quality in an international setting.

Core Commitments and National Leadership
Whatever the decisions about how to organize an international quality culture and how to approach standards for quality, three core commitments stand out as essential to sound and effective conduct of quality review in an international setting.

Core commitment 1: Bringing the vital academic roles of higher education to an international setting. Higher education and quality assurance leaders in many countries embrace a shared vision and common understanding of the vital roles that higher education has played for generations to serve the individual and society. While carried out in many different ways, these roles include (1) contributing to the intellectual development of the individual; (2) sustaining, interpreting, enriching, and transmitting culture; (3) developing an informed citizenry; (4) contributing to a skilled workforce; (5) generating knowledge to build a vital economy, and improve the health and well-being of citizens and communities; and (6) helping government, business, and community groups to use research to address local problems.

National higher education leaders are natural advocates for the extension of these academic roles into an international setting. Quality assurance leaders support these roles by affirming they are carried out at an appropriate level of quality.

Core commitment 2: Higher education as a public good in an international setting. Each of the vital roles of higher education described above has a significant history of contribution to the public good. In general, the “public good” responsibility of higher education refers to taking actions that are in the interests of society that (1) enhance public well-being rather than focus exclusively on private interests and (2) are not carried out by other sectors of society (e.g., business, the judiciary). For higher education, “serving the public good” means addressing issues such as access and equity in educational opportunity. It means an emphasis on education for citizenship and societal well-being as perhaps more important than education for individual gain that may be unrelated to social improvement. This is in contrast to, for example, higher education primarily in the service of the market or commercial interests.

In a similar vein, an “international public good” can also be sustained and encouraged. National higher education and quality assurance leaders further an “international public good” when they assure that higher education and quality review in an international setting also support the vital roles of higher education as described above. This means that, for example, international instruments such as bilateral or regional arrangements among countries would further the development of an citizenry knowledgeable and responsive to international needs and discourage dubious providers of higher education or “diploma mills.”

Leadership also honors this commitment to the public good in an international setting when engaging in ongoing consultation and deliberation about key values in higher education and quality review that relate to the public good. This commitment means that effective international quality review will routinely include conversations among these leaders about, for example, the important role of general education and the liberal arts in various societies. It means attention to the relationship between intellectual development, the dignity of human life, and the development of society.

Core commitment 3: The value of diversity of higher education in an international setting. Diversity of higher education within various countries usually refers to the range of institutional types available within the society: public and private institutions and teaching and research institutions. Diversity in a international setting refers not only to preserving and enhancing variation in institutional type but also to preserving the various cultural and intellectual traditions associated with colleges and universities in different countries. Colleges and universities are influenced by the history and culture in which they are located and bring these diverse practices and perspectives to the international community. Effective international quality review is built on, first and foremost, honoring and supporting these practices and perspectives.

Grounding international quality review in the existing network of national higher education and quality assurance leaders supports this diversity. It honors national differences. It requires that considerations of quality are addressed carefully, calling for analysis of those dimensions of quality that are more culturally dependent and those that are less culturally dependent in any society.

The role of national leaders offered here positions quality review of higher education in an international setting as an enterprise that derives its legitimacy and authority from the national higher education community working with national quality assurance and accreditation organizations. The core commitments provide a vision of a diverse international culture of higher education institutions continuing to carry out their vital academic roles in relation to the individual and society in the context of serving the public good.

Note: This article is based on the September 2003 CHEA Letter from the President, “Do We Need an International Confederation for Quality Review of Higher Education?” available at www.chea.org/research.