ABSTRACT
The experiences of the UK, Australia and other developed countries suggest that the adoption of an instrumental approach to quality assurance in higher education can only work if a number of conditions are met. The necessary and sufficient conditions for quality assurance to work are present to a very large extent in universities in developed countries. Developing countries have often been described as countries with low per capita incomes that have not embarked on the path of sustained economic growth. They have poor educational and medical facilities and large numbers of the population live in poverty. In developed countries, it is largely on academic merit and conducted in a timely and transparent way, while in developing countries the procedure is clumsy and not well known, and social and political factors matter more than academic merit more often than not.
