ABSTRACT
The changing nature of quality assessment has proved a challenge in writing this book. As we write, the new Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAAHE) is about to manage the merger of the two quality processes — audit and assessment. The name of the process will change, from ‘assessment’ to ‘review’, and ‘Assessors’ will become ‘reviewers’, although the current procedures and terminology for quality assessment will remain in place until September 1998, and we have structured this book so that the reader can easily incorporate subsequent changes. Inevitably an enterprise that attempts to introduce a nationwide accountability structure in higher education will have teething troubles and will need to adapt quickly. The underlying principles must evolve, for example from selective to universal visiting, but it is clear that all aspects of educational provision will continue to be subject to assessment of one form or another. This demands fundamental shifts in the way staff in higher education institutions (HEIs) regard and conduct their profession, which is the prime interest of this book.
