Higher Education in the 21st Century: The Iron Triangle’s Critical Angle of Quality Assurance

Abstract

I'm here today to talk about quality in higher education in keeping with the theme of Quality Assurance Week, "Promoting Quality in Tertiary Education through Leadership."// I'm going to tell you a bit about the Commonwealth of Learning and our activities around the Commonwealth, and specifically in Jamaica. I will touch on some of the trends in higher education in the 21st century and the challenges this is causing. We'll look at the Iron Triangle of higher education, and the elements of Access, Quality and Cost. Then we'll focus on quality - why it's so important in higher education, how it's achieved and how it's measured.// One of the ways quality is assessed is the institutional audit. I will tell you about COL's recent experience with institutional audits, what we learned and how we are moving forward.// Quality can be a slippery concept to manage. My goal is to help you understand why quality is a critical angle of the Iron Triangle, and why we must pay attention to quality in higher education.