Assumptions commonly underlying government quality assessment practices

The current interest in governmental assessment and accountability practices appears to result from: (1) an emerging view of higher education as an "industry" (2) concerns about efficient resource allocation; (3) a lack of trust and confidence between governmental and institutional officials; (4) a desire to reduce uncertainty in government/higher education relationships; (5) lack of confidence in institutional governance. Based on these concerns, governments increasingly are engaging in data-based quality assessment processes. These processes appear to assume that: (1) faculty and administrators know how to improve quality but fail to do so; (2) government officials can assure the public interest in quality; (3) measures of quality can be identified and agreed upon; (4) improving quality requires strong bureaucratic coordination and control; (5) information systems can provide the evidence government officials need to address quality concerns. An examination of literature on organisation decision processes suggest these assumptions are inaccurate.