Analytic Quality Glossary

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Citation reference: Harvey, L., 2004, Analytic Quality Glossary, Quality Research International, http://www.qualityresearchinternational.com/glossary/

This is a dynamic glossary and the author would welcome any e-mail suggestions for amendments or additions.

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Quality

core definition

Quality is

1. (n) the embodiment of the essential nature of a person, collective, object, action, process or organisation.

2. (adj) means high grade or high status (as in a quality performance).

3. a shorthand, in higher education, for quality evaluation processes.

explanatory context

Quality is an elusive term, as many people have argued, for example, ‘Quality is notoriously elusive of prescription, and no easier even to describe and discuss than deliver in practice’ (Gibson, 1986). It has several variants as a dictionary term (see below) and has been constructed in a wide variety of ways when linked to evaluation of higher education.

There are some people who suggest that quality, in relation to higher education, is too complex to define. However, they still want to measure this indefinable concept. There have been those who imply (or even explicitly state) that quality is something one knows when one sees it or experiences. This, though, defines quality in terms of an individual’s implicit subjective criteria.

Quality (1) is outlined below, both as a generic term and as one specifically linked to the monitoring of higher education.

Quality (2) is an implicit usage as to say a ‘quality product’ implies high quality (thus desirable). However, the forgoing is a tautological statement in that every product has a quality. In practice, to imply other than high quality, quality itself is prefixed as in ‘low-quality product’, ‘inferior-quality product’’.

Quality (3) arises when those in higher education talk about ‘quality visits’, ‘preparing for quality’, ‘the quality agency’ or sometimes when used alone as in ‘quality is a burden’ or ‘quality takes time out from the real job of teaching’ — meaning that quality evaluation processes are burdensome or time consuming.

Quality should also be distinguished from qualities, which is the ostensive expression of attributes rather than an essential embodiment of character.

Quality issues in higher education are also closely related to issues of standards. In debates about the nature and functioning of higher education, there is considerable overlap between the concepts of ‘quality’ and ‘standards’. However, quality and standards are not the same. ‘Standards’ are specified and usually measurable outcome indicators that are used for comparative purposes.

analytical review

Dictionary definitions of quality (1) as a noun include:

An essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone. (WordNet Dictionary)

The condition of being of such and such a sort as distinguished from others; nature or character relatively considered, as of goods; character; sort; rank. (Websters)

The state or condition of a person (Legal dictionary)

A degree or grade of excellence or worth; “the quality of students has risen”.

Synonyms: alibre, calibre (WordNet Dictionary)

That which makes, or helps to make, anything such as it is; anything belonging to a subject, or predicable of it; distinguishing property, characteristic, or attribute; peculiar power, capacity, or virtue; distinctive trait; as, the tones of a flute differ from those of a violin in quality; the great quality of a statesman. (Websters)

There are some specific meanings, somewhat peripheral to higher education, including:

Superior birth or station; high rank; elevated character. Hence ‘The quality’ those of high rank or station, as distinguished from the masses, or common people; the nobility; the gentry. (Websters)

In music, quality refers primarily to the timbre, but also dynamics and musical texture, of a section or piece. (Websters)

Quality – (music) the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice or noise or musical sound); “the timbre of her soprano was rich and lovely”.

Synonyms: timbre, tone (WordNet Dictionary)

Special or temporary character; profession; occupation; assumed or asserted rank, part, or position: as in: I made that inquiry in quality of an antiquary — Gray. (meaning: I made that inquiry adopting the role of an antiquary).

Quality binding: a kind of worsted tape used in Scotland for binding carpets, and the like.

Quality (2) as an adjective is defined as:

quality - of superior grade; “quality paper”; “choice wines”; “prime beef”; “prize carnations”; “select peaches”

Synonyms: choice, prize, select, prime

quality - of high social status; “people of quality”; “a quality family” (WordNet Dictionary)

Quality in higher education has many variants. These definitions of quality in higher education will be outlined here but explored in more detail in linked entries.

Harvey and Green (1993) in their pioneering paper explored the nature and usage of quality in relation ton higher education:

Quality is often referred to as a relative concept. There are two senses in which quality is relative. First, quality is relative to the user of the term and the circumstances in which it is invoked. It means different things to different people, indeed the same person may adopt different conceptualisations at different moments. This raises the issue of ‘whose quality?’. There are a variety of ‘stakeholders’ in higher education including students, employers, teaching and non-teaching staff, government and its funding agencies, accreditors, validators, auditors, and assessors (including professional bodies) (Burrows and Harvey, 1992). Each have a different perspective on quality. This is not a different perspective on the same thing but different perspectives on different things with the same label.

Second, is the ‘benchmark’ relativism of quality. In some views, quality is seen in terms of absolutes. There is the uncompromising, self evident, absolute of quality (or ‘apodictic’ as Husserl (1969) calls it). ‘As an absolute [quality] is similar in nature to truth and beauty. It is an ideal with which there can be no compromise ‘(Sallis and Hingley, 1991, p. 3). In other views, quality is judged in terms of absolute thresholds that have to be exceeded to obtain a quality rating (for example, the output has to meet a pre-determined national standard). In other conceptualisations, however, there is no threshold by which quality is judged, rather quality is relative to the ‘processes’ that result in the desired outcomes. If, for example, the product or service consistently meets its maker’s claims for it then a product has quality, irrespective of any absolute threshold. Thus, some conceptualisations of quality are rather more ‘absolutist’ than others.

Rather than try to define one notion of quality, Harvey and Green (1993) argued that they could be ‘grouped into five discrete but interrelated ways of thinking about quality’. Harvey (1995) provides the following brief overview of the five categories:

The exceptional view [of quality] sees quality as something special. Traditionally, quality refers to something distinctive and élitist, and, in educational terms is linked to notions of excellence, of ‘high quality’ unattainable by most.

Quality as perfection sees quality as a consistent or flawless outcome. In a sense it ‘democratises’ the notion of quality and if consistency can be achieved then quality can be attained by all.

Quality as fitness for purpose sees quality in terms of fulfilling a customer’s requirements, needs or desires. Theoretically, the customer specifies requirements. In education, fitness for purpose is usually based on the ability of an institution to fulfil its mission or a programme of study to fulfil its aims.

Quality as value for money sees quality in terms of return on investment. If the same outcome can be achieved at a lower cost, or a better outcome can be achieved at the same cost, then the ‘customer’ has a quality product or service. The growing tendency for governments to require accountability from higher education reflects a value-for-money approach. Increasingly students require value-for-money for the increasing cost to them of higher education.

Quality as transformation is a classic notion of quality that sees it in terms of change from one state to another. In educational terms, transformation refers to the enhancement and empowerment of students or the development of knew knowledge.

Campbell and Rozsnyai (2002, pp.19–23) discuss the concepts of quality as follows:

There are many different understandings of the term, quality, often reflecting the interests of different constituencies or stakeholders in higher education. Thus, quality is a multidimensional and often a subjective concept…. Conceptions of quality were categorized by Harvey and Green (1993), and were elaborated in the PHARE Manual of Quality Assurance: Procedures and Practices (1998). They include the following:

Quality as excellence. This definition is considered to be the traditional academic view that holds as its goal to be the best.

Quality as “zero errors”. The idea of “zero errors” is defined most easily in mass industry in which product specifications can be established in detail, and standardized measurements of uniform products can show conformity to them. As the “products” of higher education, the graduates, are not expected to be identical, this view is not always considered to be applicable to higher education.

Quality as “fitness for purpose”. This view requires that the product or service meet a customer’s needs, requirements, or desires. Learners (students) and prospective learners, those who fund higher education, the academic community, government, and society at large are to a greater or lesser extent all clients or users of higher education but may have very different views of both “purpose” and “fitness”….

Quality as threshold. Defining a threshold for quality means setting certain norms and criteria. Any programme, department, or institution, which reaches these norms and criteria, is deemed to be of quality….

Quality as value for money. The notion of accountability is central to this definition of quality …

Quality as enhancement or improvement. This concept emphasizes the pursuit of continuous improvement and is predicated on the notion that achieving quality is central to the academic ethos and that it is academics themselves who know best what quality is at any point in time. Disadvantages of this concept are that it is difficult to “measure” improvement and that the evidence of improvement may not be easily discernible to the outside world.

Some of these concepts of quality still hold true especially when explicit quality assurance and accreditation procedures are being developed and introduced for the first time either at system or at institutional level. But, notions of quality are evolving or merging, either as the result of the changing context in which higher education institutions are operating in some countries, or as a result of growing expertise within higher education systems and institutions in devising their own concepts of quality and models of evaluation and quality management. Mismatches between the requirements of the external quality assurance agency and institutional approaches to quality can be a cause of tension in relations.

The UNESCO definition (Vlãsceanu et al., 2004, pp 46–48) is lengthy (and edited here with additional extracts included in linked entries), it states:

Quality (Academic): Quality in higher education is a multi-dimensional, multi-level, and dynamic concept that relates to the contextual settings of an educational model, to the institutional mission and objectives, as well as to specific standards within a given system, institution, programme, or discipline. Quality may thus take different meanings depending on: (i) the understandings of various interests of different constituencies or stakeholders in higher education (quality requirements set by student/university discipline/labour market/society/ government); (ii) its references: inputs, processes, outputs, missions, objectives, etc.; (iii) the attributes or characteristics of the academic world which are worth evaluating; and (iv) the historical period in the development of higher education.

A wide spectrum of definitions of academic quality has been used:

– Quality as excellence: a traditional, élitist academic view, according to which only the best standards of excellence (usually meaning a high level of difficulty and of complexity of a programme, the seriousness of the student testing procedures, etc.) are understood as revealing true academic quality.

– Quality as fitness for purpose: a concept that stresses the need to meet or conform to generally accepted standards such as those defined by an accreditation or quality assurance body, the focus being on the efficiency of the processes at work in the institution or programme in fulfilling the stated, given objectives and mission….

– Quality as fitness of purpose: a concept that focuses on the defined objectives and mission of the institution or programme with no check of the fitness of the processes themselves in regard to any external objectives or expectations….

– Quality as enhancement or improvement: focusing on the continuous search for permanent improvement, stressing the responsibility of the higher education institution to make the best use of its institutional autonomy and freedom. Achieving quality is central to the academic ethos and to the idea that academics themselves know best what quality is.

Each approach has advantages and disadvantages, being more or less suitable for a specific period of time and/or national context. In terms of evolution, there are permanent movement and oscillations between relative versus absolute, internal versus externally oriented, and basic versus more advanced and sophisticated notions of quality. However, common to all of these quality approaches is the integration of the following elements: (i) the guaranteed realization of minimal standards and benchmarks; (ii) the capacity to set the objectives in a diversifying context and to achieve them with the given input and context variables; (iii) the ability to satisfy the demands and expectations of direct and indirect consumers and stakeholders; (iv) the drive towards excellence.

Council For Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) 2001defines quality thus:

Quality: Refers to “fitness for purpose”—meeting or conforming to generally accepted standards as defined by an accrediting or quality assurance body. (See also criteria, subject benchmark.)

Doherty-Delorme and Shaker (2001, p. 8) define quality as excellence:

We have defined quality as the degree of excellence of the entire educational experience. A high quality education depends on the provincial and federal governments’ commitment to fostering a well-rounded educational experience and environment. In part, this includes: the quality of student life; the adequacy of university or college finances; the breadth of disciplines and modes of learning offered; and student access to tenured faculty.

The ISO8402 definition is a version of quality as fitness for purpose, viz. quality as satisfying needs:

Quality: The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. Not to be mistaken for “degree of excellence” or “fitness for use” which meet only part of the definition. (ISO8402).

The Tempus (2001) definition is similar:

Quality – the totality of an entity’s properties which make it capable of satisfying an expressed or hypothetic need, that is, acceptability or suitability for a given purpose.

A view that sees quality as satisfying hypothetical needs shifts the emphasis back to the producer who has carte blanche to produce a product or service and then try and create a need.

Burrows and Harvey (1992) in reviewing the early literature on quality in higher education had also identified what they called the ‘pragmatic definition of quality in higher education’.

Given the difficulties in defining quality in higher education, some have opted out of trying to find an underlying theory or definition (Dochy et al.,1990; Moodie 1986). Vroeijenstijn (1991) says 'it is a waste of time to try to define Quality'. The basis of this argument is that quality is a relative concept, that different interest groups or 'stakeholders' in higher education have different priorities and their focus of attention may be different…. For example, the focus of attention for students and lecturers might be on the process of education while the focus of employers might be on the outputs of higher education. It is not possible, therefore, to talk about quality as a unitary concept, quality must be defined in terms of a range of qualities, with recognition that an institution may be of high quality in relation to one factor but low quality in relation to another. The best that can be achieved is to define as clearly as possible the criteria that each stakeholder uses when judging quality and for these competing views to be taken into account when assessments of quality are undertaken.

associated issues

Metaconcept

Harvey and Knight (1996) argued that quality as transformation was a metaconcept of quality and that other definitions were partial indicators of the transformation process at the heart of quality. That specifically, in the context of higher education, quality is fundamentally about development and improvement and that transformative approach embodies that. Excellence, consistency/perfection fitness for purpose and value for money are static state evaluations, the latter prioritising accountability over improvement. The ISO8402 definition above hints at the partiality of excellence and fitness definitions.

related terms

sources

Burrows, A. and Harvey, L., 1992, ‘Defining Quality in Higher Education: the stakeholder approach’, paper to the AETT conference on ‘Quality in Education’, University of York, 6-8th April, 1992.

Campbell, C. & Rozsnyai, C., 2002, Quality Assurance and the Development of Course Programmes. Papers on Higher Education Regional University Network on Governance and Management of Higher Education in South East Europe Bucharest, UNESCO.

Council For Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) 2001, Glossary of Key Terms in Quality Assurance and Accreditation, http://www.chea.org/international/inter_glossary01.html, updated 8 May 2001.

Dochy, F. J. R. C, Segers, M. S. R. and Wijnen, W. H. F. W., 1990, ‘Preliminaries to the implementation of a quality assurance system based on management information and performance indicators’ in Dochy, F. J. R. C, Segers, M. S. R. and Wijnen, W. H. F. W. (Eds.), Management Information and Performance Indicators in Higher Education: an International Issue, Van Corcum, Assesn/Maastricht, pp. 69–94.

Doherty-Delorme, D. and Shaker, E., 2001, Missing Pieces II An Alternative Guide To Canadian Post-Secondary Education. 2000/2001 Provincial Rankings: Where Do the Provinces Stand on Education? January, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/pub4.html

Gibson, A., 1986, ‘Inspecting education’, in Moodie, G. (Ed.), Standards and Criteria in Higher Education, Guildford, SRHE, pp. 128–35.

Harvey, L. and Green, D., 1993, ‘Defining quality’, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 18(1). pp. 9–34.

Harvey, L., 1995, ‘Editorial: The quality agenda’, Quality in Higher Education, 1(1), pp. 5–12.

Husserl, E., 1969, Cartesian Meditations. The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff.

Kristoffersen, D., Sursock, A. & Westerheijden, D. 1998, Quality assurance in higher education: manual of quality assurance: procedures and practices EC/PHARE/European Training Foundation. London, United Kingdom, QSC,

Legal Dictionary, 2004, details on http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/quality

Moodie, G. C., (Ed.) 1986, Standards and Criteria in Higher Education. Guildford, SRHE & NFER/Nelson.

Sallis, E. & Hingley, P., 1991, College Quality Assurance Systems. Bristol, The Staff College, Mendip Papers, 20.

Tempus, 2001, Glossary of the terms related to quality assurance Development of Quality Assurance System in Higher Education (QUASYS) Tempus Joint European Project, UM JEP-16015-2001 http://www.unizg.hr/tempusprojects/glossary.htm

Vlãsceanu, L., Grünberg, L., and Pârlea, D., 2004, Quality Assurance and Accreditation: A Glossary of Basic Terms and Definitions (Bucharest, UNESCO-CEPES) Papers on Higher Education, ISBN 92-9069-178-6. http://www.cepes.ro/publications/Default.htm

Vroeijenstijn, A. I., 1991, ‘External Quality Assessment: servant of two masters?’, paper presented at a conference on quality assurance in higher education in Hong Kong on 15-17 July 1991.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary, 2004, details on http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/quality

Wikipedia, 2004, details on http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/quality

WordNet Dictionary, 2004, details on http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/quality