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In recent years price‐based competition has given way to quality‐based competition in world markets. Companies are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of quality assurance programmes — its challenges and opportunities. In this article we discuss those challenges for improved quality assurance within the management framework, existing support systems and a strategy to design and implement a quality assurance certificate programme.

This chapter offers a systematic review of research into quality assurance and quality management in higher education. It begins by considering quality as theory and discusses the methodology applied. The origin and meaning of the terms quality assurance and quality management, as they are used in higher education, and their application and practice, are then discussed. The issues and critiques that have been raised concerning quality assurance and management are identified, before some conclusions are reached.

This paper aims to identify what is needed to enhance academic quality assurance in a university, with specific efforts to reduce the risks associated with ritualised quality assurance practices.

The aspects to enhance academic quality assurance efforts in managerial universities are identified through a thematic analysis of the literature.

It was found that the very nature of managerialism caused quality assurance effort to lose its meaning and become a ritual for compliance only. Subsequently, five aspects were identified to enhance academic quality assurance in a university: establishing quality assurance in the unique context of the institution; ensuring that the efforts of policy makers are aligned with those of policy users; quality assurance based on sound auditing principles without excessively monitoring performance; building a quality culture where quality assurance is practiced in an enabling environment; and allowing quality assurance practices to be adaptable.

The aspects identified are particularly important for quality assurance practitioners, developers of quality assurance processes and academics at universities to enable enhancement of academic quality assurance practices.

This paper argued that the nature of managerialism caused quality assurance to lose its meaning. The abundance of quality assurance tasks, forms and processes do not protect the institution against reputational risks, and quality assurance, as practiced presently, was found to be intrinsically risky. This paper offered an integrated view on how quality assurance efforts can be enhanced.

This study aims to present a general conceptual framework which can be used to evaluate quality and institutional performance in higher education.

The quality of higher education is at the heart of the setting up of the European Higher Education Area. Strategic management is widely used in higher education institutions and is a strong candidate for the general framework of management. The balanced scorecard approach has been designed as a mechanism to communicate and implement the strategic plan and make it more understandable to stakeholders.

The concepts of quality and strategy maps provide the tools that can be used to describe the conceptual framework to describe the quality assurance system and institutional performance.

The quality and performance of a higher education institution are evaluated by national quality assurance agencies and many other stakeholders having various objectives and interests. The evaluation is based on the backgrounds and subjective experiences of the evaluators. Therefore there is clearly a need for a common and rational framework for the evaluation.

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 purpose of this study is to examine quality assurance for archives and records management (ARM) education in an open distance e-learning (ODeL) environment in Eswatini with a view to conceptualise a framework for quality assurance in the development and implementation of an ARM programme in the context of ODeL.

The study is anchored on the interpretive research paradigm, which surrounds a systematic literature review. The researcher searched for literature online, using scientific databases such as Ebsco, Scopus and Google Scholar. The search applied the publications from 2005 to 2019. The main search keywords are “archives”, “records management”, “open distance e-learning” and “quality assurance”. A total of 15 articles, which included documents, journal articles, reports, web pages and monographs, were retrieved, reviewed and analysed in this study. This conceptual study was preliminary, and the researcher hopes that further empirical studies based on the findings of this study could be pursued in future.

ARM as a form of study and delivered on ODeL platforms have been proposed in Eswatini. The major concern among stakeholders is how to ensure the quality of such programmes.

This conceptual study was preliminary, and the researcher hopes that further empirical studies based on the findings of this study could be pursued in future.

The findings and recommendations will help in the development of ARM programmes to be offered effectively by way of ODeL, there is a need to develop a transparent quality assurance framework for such an application and its implementation.

This is the first study on quality assurance for ARM education in an ODeL environment in Eswatini. As part of the study, a quality assurance framework was designed for the implementation of ARM education on an ODeL platform. This quality assurance framework is intended to help higher education institutions in Eswatini such as the University of Eswatini as well as stakeholders such as the Eswatini National Archives and others to design ARM education and deliver it on an ODeL platform in a manner that guarantees adequate quality.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the presence of quality assurance, risk management, and audit practices at the municipal, provincial and federal levels of law enforcement in Canada. Based on open‐ended interviews and surveys with management of law enforcement agencies, the study attempts to determine the extent to which these practices are in place, the structure of managing these functions, including the tools that are used to do so and the role of these functions within the organization.

The survey was sent to 104 police services, which are represented in the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. A total of 30 people responded on behalf of 23 police agencies. The survey was supplemented with in‐depth interviews with selected police services.

There was a high level of consensus around the reasons for undertaking these processes and the rankings were also remarkably consistent. The way in which risks are defined varies from organization to organization but some common patterns emerge. The top risks are those associated with the external environment (80.77 per cent) and operational risks (76.92 per cent).

The study confirmed the challenges associated with establishing rigorous professional standards, while balancing the interests of different stakeholders in the development and application of the process.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐17; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐17; Property Management Volumes 8‐17; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐17.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐17; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐17; Property Management Volumes 8‐17; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐17.

Quality assurance is the process of providing confidence that the stated or implied requirements for quality are met. In financial investment services, “quality” is defined as the perception of the investor about achieving satisfactory returns under acceptable and generally accepted risks within a planned time. Investor’s confidence in achieving quality stems from the quality assurance efforts and processes of the investment service provider. In this paper, different types of investment services, from a simple provision of investment information, to a full‐service portfolio management are discussed. Principles of quality assurance in investment services are provided. A realistic portfolio management case indicates that a modern quality management system (ISO 9000) can enhance quality assurance and thus the quality of investment services.