Quality assurance and the role of a national organisation involved in credit rating

Abstract

This paper presents a critical analysis of a national organisation involved in credit rating, focusing on credit rating as a quality assurance issue. The organisation ‐ The SCOTCAT Health Studies Group (SHSG) ‐ began with an ethos of self‐help and mutual aid. It now inhabits a world sited ambiguously between, on the one hand, professional and fee‐for‐service imperatives and, on the other hand, an emergent Government‐sponsored rhetoric of transparency and cooperation for life‐long learning. The paper stems from our concern that issues of quality may be compromised by these imperatives and tensions. We have used the metaphor of SHSG as a “life form” to facilitate exploration of its origins, structure, and place in a wider context, noting limits in the metaphor’s power to illuminate these matters. The paper addresses issues which SHSG must face, as an organisation having members from both the professional (nursing) and the higher educational domains must face; particularly when the two worlds it bridges are changing. The analysis focuses on four themes: evolution, co‐operation, confidence, and mutual recognition of quality. Each theme has a reflexive aspect. Linkages between the themes are discussed in light of the development of SHSG, and some general issues related to changes in inter‐institutional relationships are raised.

Citation

Smith, A. and Tilley, S. (1998), "Quality assurance and the role of a national organisation involved in credit rating", Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 172-179. https://doi.org/10.1108/09684889810220474