Using the University of Durban-Westville as an illustrative case study, the study examines quality assurance policies and their implementation in the South African higher education system. The scope of the study covers a wide-ranging analysis of discourses underpinning quality assurance and a focused analysis of institutional policies. As one of its central aims, the dissertation investigates the tension between quality assurance as it is conventionally understood and quality assurance conceived as continuous organizational improvement based on the principles of total quality management. The study has two fairly distinct dimensions: a literature survey focusing on global trends and practices, and an empirical investigation focusing on the University of Durban-Westville. The literature study looks global systems, trends and practices, and provides a suitable point of departure for a contextual analysis of quality management in the South African higher education system. Relying on a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews as research instruments, the study's empirical component investigates the attitudes and perceptions of academic managers at UDW towards national and institutional quality assurance policies and mechanisms. The study's findings all point to a preference for a decentralised system of quality management with the government playing a peripheral monitoring role rather than a central policing role . This study also demonstrates that the distinction between academic development and quality assurance is a spurious one and should only be made for analytical purposes. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Educational Management)

In the light of growing concerns regarding the quality of higher education after a period of rapid expansion, in 2003, the Chinese government launched the Undergraduate Teaching Evaluation (UTE), the first nation-wide evaluation of universities. In 2008, the UTE was replaced by the Quality Project, which signalled a change in its quality assurance approach, with a move from evaluations to the issuing of awards. In order to investigate the impact of the two national quality assurance policies, along with the impact of two long-standing internal quality assurance mechanisms employed by universities - class observation and student evaluation of teachers - on teaching, the researcher adopted policy analysis and a case study approach. Three different universities in the same region were selected as cases. Semi-structured interviews with 56 heads of department and teachers across three departments at each university were conducted. National and university policy documents, as well as interview data, were analysed thematically in the light of concepts derived from the political sciences, namely Knoepfel et al.'s (2007; 2011) framework for policy analysis and Schneider and Ingram's (1990) classification of policy tools. University policies and interview data revealed the patterns of impact of these two quality assurance policies. Faced with the UTE inspection, universities shifted their focus from assuring the quality of teaching to achieving good results in the exercise and therefore engaging in 'game-playing'. In order to ensure good UTE results, universities even resorted to the manipulation of data. University policies resulting from the UTE required teachers to produce standardised documents and to follow particular procedures. The majority of interviewed teachers regarded the impact of the UTE with cynicism, seeing it as a waste of time and effort, an interference with academic freedom, and believing it had the effect of undermining ethics. However, some teachers reported as positive impact of the fact that the UTE helped to keep teachers disciplined, and that it provided an impetus for ensuring teaching quality. Interview data showed that the Quality Project awards only had an impact on the award winners, who perceived the incentives on offer to be substantial. These award winners considered the acknowledgement given by the awards and the information obtained through reflection and good examples as valuable impacts. However, the Quality Project awards did not have impact on non-award winners, i.e. the majority of teachers. This study revealed that in order to have impact the institutional practices of class observation and the student evaluation of teachers relied on a number of conditions being in place. These practices had impact when the stakes were high or when university teachers received valid and reliable feedback. Whilst high stakes were found to lead to mixed impact, valid and reliable feedback contributed to the improvement of teaching. This study contributes to the understanding of the impact of quality assurance policies and mechanisms on teaching in Chinese higher education, an area that has not yet been the subject of significant empirical research. Covering the two major quality assurance policies in recent years, and also the institutional mechanisms teachers face, this research was able to capture the interdependence between these policies. No such research has previously been conducted in the context of Chinese higher education. In regard to the theoretical aspect of the research, the empirical evidence that was collected and a comprehensive review of other empirical research enabled the development of an Impact Framework. The Impact Framework identified patterns in the impact of various quality assurance policy tools and revealed their inherent strengths and weaknesses. Hence, the Impact Framework can serve in the future as an important reference for policy-makers who are seeking to design and implement effective quality assurance policy tools.

Cette thèse concerne la restauration aveugle d’images (formulée comme un problème inverse mal-posé et mal-conditionné), en considérant particulièrement les systèmes SIMO. Dans un premier temps une technique d’identification aveugle de ce système où l’ordre du canal est inconnu (surestimé) est introduite. Nous introduisons d’abord une version simplifiée à coût réduit SCR de la méthode des relations croisées (CR). Ensuite, une version robuste R-SCR basée sur la recherche d’une solution parcimonieuse minimisant la fonction de coût CR est proposée. La restauration d’image est ensuite assurée par une nouvelle approche inspirée des techniques de décodage des signaux 1D et étendue ici aux cas de la restauration d’images en se basant sur une recherche arborescente efficace (algorithme ‘Stack’). Plusieurs améliorations de la méthode ‘Stack’ ont été introduites afin de réduire sa complexité et d’améliorer la qualité de restauration lorsque les images sont fortement bruitées. Ceci en utilisant une technique de régularisation et une approche d’optimisation all-at-once basée sur la descente du gradient qui permet de raffiner l’image estimée et mieux converger vers la solution optimale. Ensuite, les mesures de la qualité d’images sont utilisées comme fonctions de coûts (intégrées dans le critère global) et ce afin d’étudier leur potentiel pour améliorer les performances de restauration. Dans le contexte où l’image d’intérêt est corrompue par d’autres images interférentes, sa restauration nécessite le recours aux techniques de séparation aveugle de sources. Pour cela, une étude comparative de certaines techniques de séparation basées sur la propriété de décorrélation au second ordre et la parcimonie est réalisée. / This thesis concerns the blind restoration of images (formulated as an ill-posed and illconditioned inverse problem), considering a SIMO system. Thus, a blind system identification technique in which the order of the channel is unknown (overestimated) is introduced. Firstly, a simplified version at reduced cost SCR of the cross relation (CR) method is introduced. Secondly, a robust version R-SCR based on the search for a sparse solution minimizing the CR cost function is proposed. Image restoration is then achieved by a new approach (inspired from 1D signal decoding techniques and extended here to the case of 2D images) based on an efficient tree search (Stack algorithm). Several improvements to the ‘Stack’ method have been introduced in order to reduce its complexity and to improve the restoration quality when the images are noisy. This is done using a regularization technique and an all-at-once optimization approach based on the gradient descent which refines the estimated image and improves the algorithm’s convergence towards the optimal solution. Then, image quality measurements are used as cost functions (integrated in the global criterion), in order to study their potential for improving restoration performance. In the context where the image of interest is corrupted by other interfering images, its restoration requires the use of blind sources separation techniques. In this sense, a comparative study of some separation techniques based on the property of second-order decorrelation and sparsity is performed.

Using the University of Durban-Westville as an illustrative case study, the study examines quality assurance policies and their implementation in the South African higher education system. The scope of the study covers a wide-ranging analysis of discourses underpinning quality assurance and a focused analysis of institutional policies. As one of its central aims, the dissertation investigates the tension between quality assurance as it is conventionally understood and quality assurance conceived as continuous organizational improvement based on the principles of total quality management. The study has two fairly distinct dimensions: a literature survey focusing on global trends and practices, and an empirical investigation focusing on the University of Durban-Westville. The literature study looks global systems, trends and practices, and provides a suitable point of departure for a contextual analysis of quality management in the South African higher education system. Relying on a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews as research instruments, the study's empirical component investigates the attitudes and perceptions of academic managers at UDW towards national and institutional quality assurance policies and mechanisms. The study's findings all point to a preference for a decentralised system of quality management with the government playing a peripheral monitoring role rather than a central policing role . This study also demonstrates that the distinction between academic development and quality assurance is a spurious one and should only be made for analytical purposes. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Educational Management)

Denna studie har genomförts inom området för industriell teknik och tillhandahåller vidare förslag på en hållbar förbättring för ett svenskt företag som tillverkar glass, Gute Glass, beläget i Visby Gotland. Hållbarhetsutveckling utgör ett fundamentalt område och ligger vidare till grund för arbetet med att ta fram förbättringsförslaget för studien och företaget ifråga, i vilket hållbar utveckling är ett antaget globalt mål som alla länder ska arbeta för och som vidare kan definieras som ”Utveckling som möter nutidens behov utan att riskera möjligheten för kommande generationer att möta sina behov” (Gröndahl och Svanström, 2010, s. 32). Växtbaserade dieter är något som gynnar den hållbara utvecklingen i förhållande till animaliskt baserade dieter och dessa områden samt vilken påverkan de har på miljön ligger till grund för förbättringsförslaget. / This study has been carried out within the field of industrial technology and further provides suggestions for sustainable improvement for a Swedish company that produces ice cream, Gute Glass, located in Visby Gotland. Sustainability development is a fundamental area and also forms the basis for the work of developing the improvement proposal for the study and the company in question, in which sustainable development is an assumed global goal that all countries must work for and which can further be defined as "Development that meets today's needs without risking the opportunity for future generations to meet their needs'' (Gröndahl and Svanström, 2010, p. 32). Plant-based diets are something that benefits the sustainable development in relation to animal-based diets and these areas and the impact they have on the environment is the basis for the improvement proposal.