ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Dearing compact from the perspective of quality assurance policies that were intended to help bind the parties into the non-negotiated public agreement. In higher education, quality assurance (QA) encompasses all the policies, systems, processes and practices directed to ensuring the maintenance and enhancement of the quality of educational provision and the standards achieved by students'. The Dearing Report (1997) used the notion of a compact in the sense of a moral or social agreement that set out the obligations and responsibilities of different parties in a publicly accessible way. National QA policies have been instrumental in creating the discourse for quality and standards that has made the system as a whole, institutions and the individuals in it more accountable to society and the state. The Dearing Report's recommendations relating to quality assurance and outcome standards grew out of the substantial public debate led by the Higher Education Quality Council and the system-level research that was undertaken.
