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Internal auditing assumes an increased responsibility for the evaluation of entity operations as a service to management and the board of directors. Quality assurance review is the process through which assurance is obtained that the internal auditing department’s work is done in accordance with the Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing. This study examines the current practices of quality assurance review in South Africa. Although not all organisations surveyed do perform internal auditing quality assurance reviews, the organisations that do, benefit from them. Various methods are used in practice to perform internal and external quality assurance reviews. This study provides information on the processes and procedures used in quality assurance review programmes.

This study compares quality assurance across two case studies in the UK; a commercial organization operating in the private sector and a university. Case Study A is a private education organization specializing in the delivery of business and management programs. Case Study B is a university that delivers courses across four academic schools and through a number of partnerships. The business school offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in business management, economics, accounting, events, tourism, marketing, entrepreneurialism, and human resources. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 organizational members from across the two organizations including 8 academics/tutors, 6 of whom are also employed as external examiners and/or external quality assurers (EQAs). The study compares the remit of both EQA working on behalf of awarding bodies and external examiners working on behalf of universities. The EQA role is conceptualized as an “arbiter of standards” whereas the external examiner is more likely to be considered as “critical friend.” This variance in conception has important implications for the way the process of quality assurance is conducted and utilized in support of program and institutional development. The research finds that one of the most significant differences between quality assurance processes in Case Studies A and B is the way in which student feedback is collected and utilized to support and enhance the process of review. This chapter provides recommendations designed to capitalize on the value of the quality assurance process through greater alignment of teaching and assessment strategy and policies and procedures in practice.

The purpose of this paper is to review and identify changes in systems of external examinations in Denmark, the UK and Norway.

Comparative analysis of studies, reviews and documents concerning the purpose and functioning of systems of external examination in three selected countries.

The paper concludes that systems of external examinations are being transformed from a focus on student performance to a focus on programme quality and coherence in all three countries studied.

The paper shows that older and newer forms of quality assurance are becoming more integrated with the potential of creating quality assurance procedures addressing teaching and learning issues more directly.

Much attention has been given to newer forms of external quality assurance schemes. More traditional forms of quality assurance have, as a consequence, received less attention although they may still provide benefits to higher education.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the maintenance of the process‐based quality assurance system in a higher education institution.

The paper introduces the process management as the essential element of quality assurance in higher education and discusses the external quality audit of the quality assurance agency, extends the study to the quality management between the external audits and presents the procedure of internal quality audits. Finally, the results of the study are discussed and summarised. Action research methodology was adopted in this study. The paper shows that the process‐based quality assurance system makes the organisation responsive, agile and enables the achievement of strategic objectives.

The audit group must first evaluate the necessary improvements in the process. If no improvements are found, the quality deviations must be reported. The audit helps the institution take corrective actions to amend the process descriptions or maintain the processes.

The paper shows that the necessary processes of a higher education institution can be systematically described and audited.

The involvement of stakeholders such as employers, alumni, and students has always been considered a key element in improving the higher education (HE) system. While considering stakeholders as key players in serving the market and in improving HE instruction, a two-sided collaborative involvement should aim at satisfying the mutual interests and overcoming existing barriers. Quality assurance systems have always supported crossing these barriers to link with the external stakeholders. However, many of the external quality assurance agencies (EQA) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region specify a group of external holders, limiting the various types of key stakeholders needed to enhance the academic programs. On the other hand, there are encountered risks in involving stakeholders if left with no objective guidance, especially that quality agencies are formidably urging the universities to consider the external stakeholders’ inputs to satisfy the quality assurance standards. The main objective of this chapter is to investigate the types of stakeholders’ and their levels of involvement within the local higher education institutions (HEIs). The chapter aims to provide an insight to invest in this involvement and utilize it to further improve the programs and their graduate attributes and suggests actions that would proficiently and truly enhance the involvement of external stakeholders. The outcomes of this chapter are expected to guide the EQAs and the HEIs to develop new practices in involving stakeholders, such as curriculum input, collegiate internships, aligning graduate attributes to market needs, financial support through endowments, professional development, and partnerships in service-level agreements.

This paper aims to determine how quality assurance practitioners in Vietnam describe their levels of professional knowledge and related skills, as well as identifying factors that interfere with the development of these skills.

Semi-structured were conducted with 22 quality assurance practitioners who were directly involved in quality assurance policy-making and implementation.

Thematic analysis identified that internal challenges for quality assurance staff were mostly related to their lack of knowledge, skills and experience in this area. Limited capacity in English communication was also reported as a major challenge for Vietnamese quality assurance specialists.

The paper concludes that regular capacity-building programmes can help quality assurance staff gain the necessary knowledge and skills to improve their work performance.

This paper aims to examine the effect of corporate integrity and external assurance on Sustainability Reporting Quality (SRQ) of Malaysian public listed companies.

The study uses a longitudinal sample of 2,463 firm-year observations of non-financial firms listed on the main board of Bursa Malaysia from 2015 to 2019. The study employed panel regression that is, Fixed Effect (FE) Robust Standard Error estimation technique to test its hypotheses.

The panel regression results reveal that corporate integrity and external assurance positively and significantly influence the quality of sustainability reporting. Though the positive association shows an improvement in the SRQ of the sampled firms, it needs an improvement as the disclosure is more general and qualitative than quantitative. The present improvement in SRQ might result from some regulatory changes like the Sustainability Practice Note 9 Updates of Bursa Malaysia 2017 and the Revised MCCG Principle A to C within the same period.

The study adopts a purely quantitative approach and call for a qualitative investigation in the area in the future.

The study has policy implication for the government and regulators to strengthen compliance with the sustainability reporting guide and the Practice Note 9 Updates. It also has implication for corporate integrity and external assurance for companies, to enhance SRQ and achieve sustainable development.

The study bridged literature gaps by offering new insights and empirical evidence on the role of corporate integrity in SRQ, which has received no empirical attention in the Malaysian context.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the province over time has addressed problems that are generic to many jurisdictions in assuring quality: level of aggregation, pooling, definition of new and continuing programs, scope of jurisdiction, role of governors, performance indicators, relationship to accreditation, programs versus credentials, benchmarking and isomorphism. The paper will pay particular attention to the balance between institutional autonomy in promoting quality and innovation in contrast to system-wide standards for assuring quality. The Province of Ontario has had some form of quality assurance since 1969. For most of the period since then, there were separate forms for undergraduate and graduate programs. Eligibility for public funding is based on the assurance of quality by a buffer body. In 2010, after two years of work, a province-wide task force devised a new framework.

The structure of the paper is a series of “problem/solution” discussions, for example, aggregation, pooling, isomorphism and jurisdiction.

Some problems are generic, for example, how to define a “new” program. Assuring quality and enhancing quality are fundamentally different in terms of process.

Although many of the problems discussed are generic, the paper is based on the experience of one jurisdiction.

The article will be useful in post-secondary systems seeking to balance autonomy and innovation with central accountability and standardization. It is particularly applicable to undifferentiated systems.

Implications for public policy are mainly about locating the most effective center of gravity between assuring quality and enhancing quality, and between promoting quality and ensuring accountability.

The approach of the discussion and analysis is novel, and the results portable.

The purpose of this paper is to examine faculty members' perceptions over time with respect to the concept of quality assurance; the evaluation objects and the rationale for choosing them; and attitudes toward the application of this process in the college and in its academic units.

This a qualitative longitudinal case study of one veteran college of education in the center of Israel. The leading faculty members under study comprised 17 subject‐matter department heads specializing in the humanities, science and in education. All of them implemented an internal evaluation in their departments as part of a quality assurance process. The study involved two rounds of semi‐structured interviews: at the beginning of the process and two‐and‐a‐half years later, using categorical content analysis.

The results indicate that time is required for the process to mature, for process objection level to decline and for assertive leadership to evolve. Positive attitudes emerge when faculty members are given the opportunity to act in an autonomous atmosphere, when organizational learning frameworks are established and when variety is legitimized. Furthermore, faculty members take responsibility and understand that the process improves the quality of their work. Overall, perceptions of processes changed from quality assurance as external supervision imposed on the institution, to quality enhancement emerging from the academic faculty and from the needs of the institution.

For decision makers and practitioners in higher education, this case study represents one stage in building an organizational culture, that can contribute in the future to external quality assurance processes when required by stakeholders.

Examines the proposals made by the National Committee of Inquiry in Higher Education (Dearing Report) for a national quality assurance regime that is focused on academic standards. Provides a simple conceptual aid to explain relationships between the elements of the policy framework. Considers the methodologies that are being developed by the Quality Assurance Agency and the implications for institutional and academic practice. Identifies factors and issues that will need to be considered during policy development.