Assessing the Quality of a University—Particularly Its Teaching

Universities are complex organizations, made up of semi-autonomous sectors and even more autonomous faculty members. Tradition and rules push activities toward homogeneity. Still, most administrators, staff, and students enjoy a grand leeway in which to work. Vincent Tinto (1995) noted that it would be difficult to find a single academic culture, but different cultures, different practices of evaluation and various groups of teachers and students.