Impact of External Quality Assurance Practices on Higher Education: A Review Paper, 2020.

Abstract

For the past two decades, quality issues in higher education have attracted many scholars. Scholars are trying to answer the question of whether quality assurance both internal and external has an impact on the operations and output from higher education institutions. This paper focuses on answering whether external quality assurance practices influence the internal operations of a higher learning institution. While focusing on the impact of external quality assurance practices, this paper reviewed various literature from previous studies published between 2010 and 2020 on the subject matter. The results from previous studies are reviewed to determine the impact and reasons for the impact of various external quality assurance practices. Findings from the review suggest that external quality assurance has both positive and negative impacts on universities’ internal operations. Some of the negative effects include increased cost of operations, reduced freedom and excessive regulations, and the positive impacts are increased enrolment, quality output and good internal quality assurance practices. It is therefore important that higher learning institutions adhere to EQA and go beyond EQA requirements for better results. It is recommended that External quality assurance practices should align with globalization pace which creates new challenges and puts higher education quality in scrutiny.