External Quality Assurance of Tertiary Providers in New Zealand (1989 – 2001): Key Processes and the Perspective of Providers

Abstract

The New Zealand Government, as principal funder of tertiary education, was and is concerned about the quality of education it funds. The emphasis on quality was a key issue behind the State sector reforms of the late 1980s. In particular, the quality of tertiary provider's education programmes, including their design and delivery, assessment methodologies and research (for those offering degrees) came under increasing scrutiny from Government mandated quality assurance authorities. Such authorities included the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors Committee (NZVCC) and their associated bodies. This thesis examines, for the first time, the issues that emerged as tertiary providers (universities, polytechnics/institutes of technology, wananga, colleges of education and private training establishments) attempted to satisfy both internal and external quality requirements between 1989 and 2002. This study aims to identify and explore the debate and subsequent problems that emerge when providers attempt to satisfy the requirements of both internal and external quality assurance. The argument is that the education reforms of the late 1980s onwards, designed to devolve responsibility from the Central Government bureaucracy to providers, and encourage them to be responsive to their local stakeholders in a competitive environment, has resulted in increased surveillance by Government through external quality bodies. As a consequence, there has been a mismatch between providers' established quality assurance processes and those of the quality bodies. Further, the establishment of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority and the development of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and its associated quality monitoring systems has had a profound effect on tertiary providers' operations. The exception is universities; which came under the umbrella of the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors Committee. The thesis concludes that quality is an enigmatic notion that challenges both quality agencies' and tertiary providers' interpretation and implementation of what is needed to meet Government requirements in order to gain funding. The research surveyed the views of 22 providers (from across the tertiary sector) about issues faced as each entered their respective external quality assurance frameworks and operated within them. Interviews were also conducted to gain further insight into the development and implementation of providers' quality management systems (QMS) and the extent that external quality monitoring had affected their operations. An analysis of the data revealed that most providers under the New Zealand, Qualifications Authority umbrella found that their quality management systems were not congruent with external requirements and consequently adjusted their quality management systems accordingly. Other key findings were that external monitoring resulted in universities formalising and documenting their quality management systems; universities considered the self-review they conducted prior to an external audit to be the most valuable part of the process; and all providers experienced additional costs and greater workloads as a consequence of meeting external quality monitoring requirements. With a view to improving current practice, this research identifies and investigates the issues that emerged as tertiary providers developed and implemented their own quality assurance systems. This thesis examines quality system management models adopted by providers and critiques some of the well-known quality models to emerge from the quality movement. Quality models such as total quality management (TQM), ISO 9000 series, benchmarking and quality awards are examined for their contribution to quality improvement and relevance to how providers implement continuous quality improvement processes. The final part of the study makes recommendations for improving quality in the tertiary sector and presents a new quality framework for provider use.