Education Quality

Delivered a seminar on "Quality Assurance in Higher Education" at the new Odisha State Open University (OSOU), on 12 Jul 2018. It was attended by a small audience of university leaders and academic managers of OSOU from two locations, Bhubaneswar and Sambalpur (via video link). We discussed the inherent difficulty of defining quality for higher education and the current trends of thinking and practice in this domain. We used the notions of "graduate attributes," "best practice / next practice," "quality culture / audit culture," and "learner-centred education" to explore the challenges of quality assurance in the open and distance learning (ODL) context. I highlighted the importance of sustaining a conversation on these topics within the institution.

Finally, I concluded that quality remains a difficult concept and we need to remain open-minded about it, acknowledging the following:

• Education quality is a moving target
• Many interpretations of education quality
• It is a complex idea – contextual and multidimensional
• Still, a systematic approach is needed
• Success is not guaranteed
• Besides, there may be unintended consequences
• Therefore, quality initiatives need continuous review from a systemic angle