University governance and quality assurance: Challenges of engagement and prospects for evolution

Abstract

Given the powerful movement towards the internationalization of higher education, the university leader has been forced to mobilize its decision-making and consultative structures at several levels of intervention and mediation to set up a quality assurance system that will have the onerous task of managing the university's conversion from the status of ‘quality mode’ to the status of ‘quality mode’, and of effecting change within a ‘logic of need’ and not within a ‘logic of reproduction’. Using conceptual and critical literature, we aim to analyze the state of the university's commitment to this continuous improvement process, which is likely to lead to universalism, pluralism, and humanism. The effects of these strategic orientations have undoubtedly been felt since the new university governance has breathed new life into the University-Company interface, particularly in terms of disseminating and promoting research results. Internally, the way has been levelled to promote a quality assurance model orchestrated by autonomous regulatory bodies and strengthened by collaborations with the Francophone and Anglo-Saxon networks. However, the autonomy of quality assurance bodies remains a highly controversial issue insofar as the ambiguity of accountability, transparency and the inadequacy of the resources allocated are all constraining aspects that represent a response to the level of adaptation of quality assurance mechanisms to the context in which they are inserted.

Keywords: Quality assurance, University governance, Educational market, Contextualization, Processes.

JEL Classification: I23

Paper type: Theorical research