Quality Assurance in Higher Education: the next 25 years

Core issues that are likely to affect the processes and agencies for external quality monitoring (EQM) in higher education for the next decades are identified. 'EQM' includes accreditation, audit, assessment, evaluation, validation and so on, and 'higher education' also includes postsecondary and tertiary education. The issues identified are categorised under the headings of finance, frameworks and flexibility. In each case, the issues are addressed both as they relate to the higher education sector itself and as they affect EQM agencies. Rapid changes in the environment mean that an EQM agency should be maximally flexible, maximally cost-effective and minimally intrusive. Flexibility should extend to the adoption of new paradigms in relation to the panel visit, assessing a 'virtual university', interacting with the various constituencies, a credentialing role, international quality assurance agencies, mutual recognition of national agencies and benchmarking.