ABSTRACT
The quality assurance (QA) approaches adopted by The University of the South Pacific (USP) and The University of the West Indies (UWI) reflect the experiences of two institutions that not only have to cope with the tyranny of distance but are jointly owned by the governments of their member countries. These regional universities must provide teaching, learning, research and support services across both physical and virtual locations, in the context of increasing competition from offshore universities, with limited resources and with a keen awareness of the importance of quality in differentiating higher education providers. This chapter reviews and reflects on the QA processes and procedures implemented at these institutions, the challenges experienced and the lessons learnt.
