This book addresses current debates on academic standards and quality assurance from the perspectives of institutional leaders, national quality bodies and higher education researchers. It includes reports on the progress of several international quality initiatives and the results of studies of the impact of external quality assurance upon management and decision-making in higher education institutions.

The articles are selected from papers contributed to conferences organised by the programme for Institutional Management in Higher Education of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris in December 1995 and by the Open University's Quality Support Centre in London in February 1996.