Higher Education Quality Enhancement Process Interrogation : Perceptions of Improvements, Challenges and Effectiveness

Matthews, Valentine and McArthur, Jan (2026) Higher Education Quality Enhancement Process Interrogation : Perceptions of Improvements, Challenges and Effectiveness. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

Text (2026Valentine MatthewsPhD)
Final_Thesis_Valentine_Matthews_-_09-02-2026.pdf - Published Version
Download (2MB)

Abstract

The early 21st century saw financial rationalizations by governments resulting in the proliferation of private higher education institutions. Self-regulation which was the 20th and early 21st century practice of higher education institutions was deemed insufficient for assuring quality, thus the adoption of internal and external accountability measures. Global higher education competition coupled with performance concerns of European higher education institutions resulted in policy introduction of Quality Assurance, accountability and now Quality Enhancement in quality management. Where Quality Assurance emphasises regulatory compliance, Quality Enhancement focusses on improvement. This research articulates a Quality Enhancement Process from policies and Quality Managers of a UAE institution. The research elicits the justifications for implementation, how improvements are achieved, the implementation challenges, process effectiveness by identifying the ineffectiveness, the quality practitioner perceptions of improvements to institutional governance and the existence of Quality Culture to support continuous improvements. Managers’ recommendations for improvement of the effectiveness of the Quality Enhancement Process are also explored. The enhancement process continuously employs quality weaknesses of institutional governance, operationalizes the weaknesses, confers unmitigated trust on managers to achieve quality targets, monitor the achievements, analyse the outcomes and re-strategize for improvements. Quality weaknesses are assessed using a 5-pronged strategic and stakeholder assessed weaknesses employing accountability, compliance, internal and external stakeholder reflections. The Quality Enhancement Process is found to achieve transformational changes to the status quo. Although the stakeholders perceive improvement of several aspects of institutional governance but failed to achieve improvement of others, improvements are legitimately achieved from the view of improvements caused by complying with improved regulatory framework. Holistic national improvements are achieved by continuously improving regulatory requirements. Conferring of unmitigated trust on quality practitioners empowers the Quality Managers however, it is also a source of embellishment of achievements, multiplexed outcomes and stakeholder loss of confidence in enhancement. Achievement verifications are thus required.