• Login
    View Item 
    •   UMI Repository Home
    • UMI Staff Publications
    • Staff Publications
    • View Item
    •   UMI Repository Home
    • UMI Staff Publications
    • Staff Publications
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Making sense of an elusive concept: Academics’ perspectives of quality in higher education

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Main article (434.5Kb)
    Date
    2017-11
    Author
    Nabaho, Lazarus
    Aguti, Jessica N.
    Oonyu, Joseph
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    Objective: Since the 1990s studies on how stakeholders in higher education perceive quality have burgeoned. Nevertheless, the majority of studies on perception of quality in higher education focus on students and employers. The few studies on academics’ perceptions of quality in higher education treat academics as a homogeneous group and, therefore, do not point out cross disciplinary perspectives in perceptions of quality. This article explores how academics across six disciplines perceive quality in higher education. Method: The article is anchored in the interpretivist paradigm. Data was collected from 14 purposely selected academics at Makerere University in Uganda and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: The findings show that academics perceive quality in higher education as transformation, fitness for purpose, and exceptional. The findings further demonstrate that a stakeholder group or an individual stakeholder can subscribe to a notion of quality in higher education but voice divergent views on its variants. Similarly, the academic discipline, the perceived purpose of higher education, and the problems within a higher education system have an influence on stakeholders’ conception of quality in higher education. Conclusions: From the findings it can be inferred that quality in higher education defies a single definition and that stakeholders’ perceptions of quality do not take place in a vacuum. Implication for Theory and/or Practice: The multidimensional nature of quality and the contestations around it necessitate a multidimensional approach to assuring and assessing it.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12305/392
    Collections
    • Staff Publications [39]

    UMISpace copyright © 2018  UMI Library
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    Property of: 
    @mire NV
     

     

    Browse

    All of UMISpaceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage StatisticsView Google Analytics Statistics

    UMISpace copyright © 2018  UMI Library
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    Property of: 
    @mire NV