Teaching labour law in a technical college

In this lecture, the author identifies six themes in UK (predominantly English) and European practice which have permeated his 19 years in quality assurance: the vagueness of the term ‘quality assurance’; its uncertain purposes in the early years; the critical importance of its ownership and financing; the increasing tendency for quality assurance to be seen as a proxy organ of external power and control over autonomous higher education institutions; the rise and growing importance of developments in Europe; and the uncertain future direction of quality assurance. He examines changes in the purposes informally ascribed to the process and concludes that there has been a shift first from, and then back towards, accountability as the dominant purpose, and that this may displace enhancement as a key objective. The ownership and financing arrangements of the QAA limit its independence of action and possibly its effectiveness. They are also indicative of the government's desire to influence the direction of external quality assurance. In the European arena, the quality assurance aspects of the Bologna Process are described in terms of a jockeying for power over higher education between universities, governments and the European Commission. The lecture ends with some general observations about quality assurance.