Current perspectives on internationalisation of quality assurance at the institutional level

Abstract

Quality Assurance (QA) is an emerging issue that has attracted the increasing interest of university leaders and administrators. However, the trend seems to be based in various motives other than quality itself. These motives have made the quality assurance of international joint programmes largely reliant on foreign partners. Non-quality intentions are, in many cases, the main drivers of international accreditation of local programmes. The Internationalisation of quality assurance at the institutional level, on the one hand, is appealing to university leaders; on the other hand poses much concern about the practicality and effectiveness of the process. Along with the difficulties in working with foreign partners, the concern has affected the strategies and approaches that universities adopt not only in accreditation but also in benchmarking. They tend to be cautious, and somewhat hesitant about benchmarking against international benchmarks. They prefer private and independent benchmarking against specific internationally recognised universities. This choice, seemingly safe, considerably limits the effects of benchmarking on improvement.