ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at what quality assurance means in industry, with a view to identifying its essential features. The chapter consider how these features might translate to university teaching if it is conceived as a product or service. A distinction is made between a standard for a product or service on the one hand and a standard for the production of that product on the other.
There are British Standards for a range of products and services but not for university teaching. There however is a standard for the management of quality and hence quality assurance and this standard, previously BS 5750 now BS 9001 is described in detail and its protocols considered in application to the management of quality in university teaching. While the chapter identifies problems in this application of BS 5750/BS 9001 it is nevertheless recommended as a useful approach to clarifying systems in a university. The chapter culminates in suggestions regarding its application.
