ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some parallel developments in higher education and industry, and suggests a framework for the analysis of quality assurance mechanisms, The difference between implicit and explicit quality assurance, between internal and external evaluation, and between input, process and output criteria is explored. It is suggested that quality assurance at a traditional German university may be characterized as implicit and clanlike. However, public pressure and initiatives at the institutional, state and federal level are shifting the emphasis towards more explicit approaches.
