Quality Assurance Systems in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

ENHANCEMENT OF QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN APEC MEMBER ECONOMIES
3. Established as a buffer body or established under a local buffer organisation where the
government may have a role in its initiation to serve governmental functions but its
control is independent of the government.
4. Established as a body without any role of the government or the HEIs in its establishment
or functioning. Professional accreditation is a typical example.
In economies where the system of higher education itself is undergoing reforms, emerging
quality assurance initiatives are being developed as a part of the reform strategy by the
government. In higher education systems where quality assurance has a longer history, the
HEIs take a leading role by providing external reviewers, or by taking part in different stages
of the process, and thus are in a position to shape the important developments of the quality
assurance system.
The role of the government in the establishment as well as in the functioning of the quality
assurance system is very explicit in the case of Brunei Darussalam, China, Mexico and
Vietnam and QA development is a national initiative. In contrast, in Canada, QA is a provincial
(state) initiative and for example, in the province of Ontario, the Council of Ontario
Universities (COU) has been developed by the universities of Ontario. The Philippines have
chosen a system where higher education institutions are members of private accreditation
agencies, organised according to various segments of the higher education system. And
finally, the quality assurance agency in Australia, although an initiative of the State, Territory
and Federal governments, has been set up as a national body with independence from
governments and HEIs.
Overall, USA, Canada, Philippines, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea have major quality
assurance systems that are the initiatives of the HEIs. In these economies, overall quality
assurance becomes a multi-agency effort, governments paying attention to certain other
aspects such as qualifications framework, linking quality assurance outcomes to government
decisions on funding, incentives, approval to function as HEIs, approval to run higher
education programs etc. For example, in New Zealand, ITP-Q and NZUAAU are initiatives of
the institutions whereas the NZQA established by the government looks into program
approval and registration of institutions according to the qualifications framework of New
Zealand.
In Peru, the Consortium of Universities owned by the universities of Peru works towards
improving the quality of higher education, although it does not function as a quality assurance
agency.
There are also organisations established and managed by groups external to both the HEIs
and the governments that perform quality assurance functions. This is how accreditation of
programs in professional areas of studies evolved. Known as specialised accreditation or
professional accreditation, this type of accreditation was born out of the concern of a
profession about the quality and relevance of educational programs that were preparing its
practitioners and the quality of the practitioners. The survey results indicate that most
economies have some amount of well-regulated quality assurance practices for professional
areas of studies such as medicine, nursing, engineering, law and accounting. The
professional bodies in these areas of studies exercise quality assurance through licensing or
registration procedures. The focus of assessment of these agencies is the quality of
graduates – future practitioners of the profession - and the procedures are developed and
monitored by current practitioners of standing. Protecting public interest and safeguarding the
standards of professional practice are central to these agencies. The quality assurance
decisions of these agencies have implications for practitioners at national and international
levels to practice their profession. But this overview does not intend to go into those details.
The discussions in this report touch upon professional accreditation whenever necessary but
the focus is on general quality assurance systems.
The rationale behind the different ways in which QA systems are established needs a mention
here. There are three situations where governments seem to have a major role. If the quality
assurance system is expected to play a central role in the higher education system of the
economy such as recognising institutions as higher education institutions, conferring the
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