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Quality of Higher Education Systems

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Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions

Synonyms

System performance; Educational standards

Definition

The degree to which a system of higher education meets personal and national needs in an efficient manner.

The “quality” of a national system of higher education is a multidimensional concept. Quality is most frequently measured in terms of outcomes, but outcomes depend on the input of adequate resources and favorable public policy – themselves measures of quality as they signal government commitment to education. The relationship between inputs and outcomes provides a measure of value added or efficiency that represents a further element of quality. A well-performing system requires appropriate quality-ensuring processes to be in place at both the institutional and national level. Reputation is yet another dimension of quality. It combines a multitude of measures, but in essence it is a summary measure of past values of actual performance.

Quality must be evaluated against the missions of the system. In very general terms,...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Melbourne Institute, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Ross Williams

  2. College of Management of Technology, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Gaétan de Rassenfosse

Authors
  1. Ross Williams
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  2. Gaétan de Rassenfosse
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ross Williams .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

    Jung Cheol Shin

  2. CIPES, Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Pedro Teixeira

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© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Williams, R., de Rassenfosse, G. (2016). Quality of Higher Education Systems. In: Shin, J., Teixeira, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_38-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_38-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9553-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9553-1

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