Quality: The Shifting Context

Vital to the success of a new model, or any model, of higher education is the issue of quality, specifically what it is and where it resides.  Never before have students, governments, and taxpayers clamored so loudly for increased accountability and transparency in education. The demand to link quality, the learning experience, and ultimately success in the workplace is affecting all levels of education. This situation is complicated by efforts to define academic quality in specific terms. The collective wisdom of academia and the federal government has not been able to reach consensus. Over time, various metrics have been proposed as significant indicators of quality, such as graduation rates and job placement data.  While such measures help to quantify institutional performance, they are difficult for many to understand as markers of quality, and they are subject to a wide variety of interpretation as to efficacy.

As higher education seeks answers,  it must look to evolving society as a context. In earlier times, quality was perceived as residing largely within the individual.  Education enhanced it (or not), but it was fundamentally an internal thing.  With the increasing complexity of society, now quality is seen as being infused through outside influences, higher education chief among them.  It has evolved to be seen largely as an external thing.

The situation in the U.S. can provide clarification.  In America, the student profile has shifted significantly in the past 50 years.  Earlier, as discussed in an earlier post, the function of higher education was to prepare elite leaders. Students were generally young, fresh from primary and secondary instruction, and knew what their future looked like.  Higher education provided the finishing touch.  Student success was largely defined by mastery of the curriculum.  Engagement and mastery of curriculum were essential to success in life. Failure to accomplish this was an obstacle to future achievement. A good liberal arts grounding was the mark of successful person.


Now students are older, they work, they have families, they study part time, and are often non-residential. Today the function of higher education is more utilitarian, in that it is viewed as essential to providing access to and success in a complex society that demands specialized expertise in diverse occupations. Today a good job is the mark of a successful person.

 So where do we look for quality?  Stay tuned.....

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