ABSTRACT
This chapter examines QA in Australian and New Zealand distance education (DE) over the past quarter century and the shifts occurring as digital technologies progressively replace print. A ‘perfect storm’ of force fields complicate the narrative, for example:
The lack of an accrediting body for DE institutions or regulatory standards for DE providers or programmes to help assure quality.
The rapid substitution of e-learning for correspondence/print-based DE.
A disconnect between benchmarking exercises designed for quality enhancement at institutional level and individual practices.
The transnational provision of higher education courses/programmes wholly or partly by means of DE and Australian universities working with overseas partners.
A persistent and underlying perception by academics and researchers that DE is a ‘fifth column’ in management drives to reduce costs, limit academic autonomy, standardize programmes and convert university study into the business of borderless education.
