The idea of quality in higher education: a conceptual approach

Author: Ourania Filippakou^a

Abstract The paper suggests that the idea of quality in higher education is ideologically constructed and conducted. In a spiral of mutual reinforcements, quality regimes naturalise experience, while the theories of that practice legitimise the naturalness of 'quality'. I shall suggest that quality regimes provide too narrow readings of higher education. The central concepts, which I propose to use - discourse and power - emphasise the connectedness of ideology and quality in higher education. In particular, I suggest that the ideological character of the idea of quality in higher education is evident in discourses - which themselves are interlinked in networks. These discourses and networks are backed up by power and this helps to sustain their ideological character. Thus, this paper attempts two things: to outline a conceptual framework concerning the ideological character of the idea of quality in higher education and to draw attention to the organisation of that ideological formation.

Keywords: discourse; ideology; higher education; quality assurance; quality enhancement

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