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Student involvement in the quality assurance process in the higher education institutions

This study aimed to suggest a model of the activities that Higher Education (HE) students undertake when they involve themselves in the Quality Assurance Process (QAP) in their institutions. Also, it aimed to identify the factors that may influence the extent and the quality of student involvement. The data was collected from a case study university in order to test the theoretical proposed model of student involvement in the institutional QAP. A mixed methods approach was used to answer the research questions. The quantitative data was collected by using the web-based questionnaires with 535 students and 67 staff. The qualitative data was collected by interviewing 11 students and 9 staff, and focus groups with 18 class representatives. The findings showed that the proposed model is confirmed and the students could participate in the QAP in their institution by carrying out three salient activities, these were: involvement in responding to QA questionnaires; involvement in QArelated committees at School, College and University levels; and involvement in direct QAP procedures. Moreover, ten factors were revealed that could impact on student involvement in the institutional QAP. The most significant ones were: communication between different groups (students and their student representatives; class representatives and the Students’ Association (SA); the SA and students; the HE institution and students; and between the SA and the HE institution), student awareness, student disinterest in involvement, and the training of student representatives. The findings affirmed the importance of student involvement in the institutional QAP and this practice should be given considerable attention in order to increase the extent and the quality of student involvement.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:554386
Date January 2011
CreatorsElassy, Noha
PublisherUniversity of Aberdeen
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=182287

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