Efficient Quality Systems |
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| Authors: | David Woodhouse |
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| Institution: | New Zealand Universities Academic Audit Unit , Wellington, New Zealand |
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| Abstract: | Quality is not cheap, and the increasing pressure or legislative requirement for institutions of higher education (IHEs) to: (i) set up their own quality management systems (QMSs) and (ii) submit to external quality review has led to increased costs for institutions and for the whole higher education system. These costs arise from increased use of resources, but more especially from the time spent by staff both within and without the institutions. It is important to achieve the quality benefits as economically as possible. (Increasingly, institutions are being urged to be efficient: it is important to ensure that the quality system itself is also efficient!) Internally, an institution must ensure that its own quality system is efficient. External aspects of efficiency include both the cost and effectiveness of any external quality agencies themselves, and also the activities required within institutions to meet the requirements of these agencies. If external efficiency is to be achieved, consideration must be given not only to the nature of such agencies but also to their number and (if multiple) their interaction. The same government pressure that begets external review is conducive to the establishment of multiple agencies to permit a large quantity of review. While the multiple‐agency approach has advantages, it also has disadvantages, not least the increased difficulty of achieving an efficient system. An efficient way of obtaining the benefits of a multiple‐agency system is for institutions to establish internal quality systems that include reviews of parts of the institution. These reviews, whether internally or externally initiated, should have external input. The external system should then comprise a single agency that is publicly accountable, that may be owned jointly by the institutions, that operates in audit mode, and that coordinates with the institutions' internal systems by explicitly checking and integrating the results of these reviews. |
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