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In traditional higher education institutions, quality has been viewed broadly, involving all institutional functions and activities to include teaching and academic programs, research and scholarship, staffing, students, building, facilities, equipment, services to the community and the academic environment. Quality assurance (QA) focuses on the process to achieve quality. It seeks to convince internal and external constituents that a credential provider has processes that consistently produce high-quality outcomes. QA also makes accountability for quality explicit at various points within an institution since quality is the responsibility of everyone in the organization. QA is a continuous, active, and responsive process which includes strong evaluation and feedback loops. At its core, QA asks the question, “How does an institution know that it is achieving the desired results? "The characteristics of quality are primarily expressed in the language of the employers who hire institutions’ graduates: (1) Technical knowledge or competence in a major field; (2) Literacy (communication and computational skills, technological skills); (3) “Just-in-time” learning ability that enables graduates to learn and apply new knowledge and skills as needed—often referred to as lifelong learning skills; (4) Ability to make informed judgments and decisions (correctly define problems, gather and analyze relevant information, and develop and implement appropriate solutions);(5) Ability to function in a global community, including knowledge of different cultures and contexts as well as foreign language skills; (6) A range of characteristics and attitudes needed for success in the workplace (flexibility and adaptability; ease with diversity; motivation and persistence; high ethical standards; creativity and resourcefulness; ability to work with others, especially in groups; and demonstrated ability to apply these skills to complex problems in real-world settings). Key institutional characteristics and behaviors to increase the likelihood that the above outcomes will be realized include: (1) Clear statement of intended learning outcomes that provides explicit direction for assessment; (2) Satisfactory performance in graduate education and on relevant licensing and certification examinations; (3) Direct assessments of exiting students’ abilities that are consistent with institutional goals and demonstrate the “value added” by the institution, given students’ starting points; and (4) Students’ satisfaction with the institution’s contribution to the attainment of their goals, relative to the costs incurred.
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