英国高等教育质量管理制度变迁探析

A Study of Transformations of the System of Quality Management in British Higher Education

英国高等教育质量管理制度,以内部和外部相结合、拨款和质量保障相配合、科研评价和教学质量保障相分离为显著特征。其发展经历了质量评估、质量保障和质量强化三个典型的制度变迁,同时反映出高等教育质量管理发展理念和制度变迁的普适性要旨:首先,质量管理制度的变迁是学术权力、政治权力和市场权力三方博弈协调的结果,是高等教育在面对市场、政府压力时从被迫到自觉的制度变革;其次,变迁的过程从根本上是教学质量管理体制变革的过程;最后,拨款机制的改革,可能成为世界高等教育质量管理改革和发展的方向。

The system of quality management in British higher education is characterized by a combination of internal review and external review, a co-ordination between funding bodies and quality assurance, and a separation of research assessment and teaching quality assurance. It has gone through three transformations, i. e, quality assessment, quality assurance, and quality enhancement. These transformations reflect the conception of development of quality management in higher education and the universal principles governing transformations of such systems, i.e. firstly, transformations result from coordination among academic power, political power and the market, and they are conscious rather than passive responses made by higher education when confronted with pressure from the market and the govemment; secondly, the process of such transformations is in fact the process of reform of the system of teaching quality management; and finally, the reform of funding mechanism may become the direction of reform and development of quality management in higher education across the whole world.