Higher Education Policy in the USA and the UK

¶ … Quality" Policy in higher education in the U.S.A. and the UK

As a country, we need more citizens who are college graduates. We need their help for rebuilding the nation's economy for a global age, to make our democracy stronger, to empower millions of the citizens. Even in this contentious and divisive times, harmony is building at that instance. Labor personnel employers, social scientists, researchers, together with Washington policy makers and those in almost every state- are in agreement: There must be a significant increase in college attainment-to help the short-term economic recovery and ensure long-term prosperity in the country as well as social stability.

But, as a matter of fact, increasing the number of college graduates is never enough. There is also the need to ensure that these new graduates come out from the postsecondary school system equipped with all the necessary knowledge and skills required to succeed in the global economy of the 21st century. Again, let me take you to the 2025 Goal statement: It is not only based on a 60% target, but specifically calls for high-quality credentials and degrees. Our major goal is to improve the quality of education and at the same time increase educational attainment. Frankly, without focusing on quality, there would be little of no meaning in increasing degree attainment (Merisotis, 2011). Relevant high quality higher education has the capacity to equip students with the necessary knowledge, core transferable competences and skills they require to succeed after they graduate, within a learning environment with great quality (European Commission, 2016).

The Role the Faculty Plays in Defining Quality and Higher Education Standards.

For several years, or even centuries, the quality decisions made on higher education, from curriculum admissions to evaluation of quality, have been carried out by the faculty within each university.

Knowing the toughness of the word quality, faculty tends to keep the definition generally vague than the critics would love to have it. It might endanger innovation to tighten the definitions on quality-innovation is one other term that is a bit hard to define.

Quality decisions processes are well-developed and exist numerously in the university system. At the center of these processes are the tenured faculty members. Faculty decisions are responsible for shaping both the curriculums and devaluation of students as well as who gets promoted and who gets hired in the universities. It is widely assumed that all faculty members are very active professionals who possess the broadest knowledge about the fields in which they teach. It is expected that they will be very active in their professional societies and make meaningful contributions to the literatures in their fields. Their peers judge them based on what they believe is quality work. This is a system built on professionalism, self-regulation and peer review (Lederman & Fritschler, 2010).

Who Should Control the Management of Quality in Higher Education?

It was decided years ago that the management of quality in both elementary and secondary school systems, that government, especially the state governments, should be responsible for deciding what quality means in the schools where they are at the helm of affairs.