ABSTRACT
This chapter explores quality enhancement in Australian higher education. It begins with an overview of national policy developments in relation to quality, drawing attention to the fact that quality assurance paradigms have dominated the higher education discourse since the early 1980s. National policy-level engagement with quality enhancement has been limited, and explicit policy statements on connections between quality assurance and enhancement have been vague, at best. The expectation has been that institutions are responsible for determining local approaches to enhancement. All universities would contend that they have undertaken quality improvement activities over the past three decades; however, some have articulated this commitment in policy and practice more consistently and comprehensively than others. In recent years, the language of quality enhancement has become more pervasive in universities, and several illustrative examples of this phenomenon are noted in the chapter. Comparisons are drawn between the Australian scene and international approaches to quality enhancement, such as that of the Scottish higher education sector. In the context of new regulatory frameworks for tertiary education and a shift to a more competitive student demand-led system in Australia, it is an opportune time to consider the role of quality enhancement. The chapter concludes with implications and opportunities for future policy development to support quality enhancement in Australian universities and at the national level.
