Japanese and British Policies on Academic Management in Universities

Can ‘Management’ Deliver ‘Quality Assurance’?

Abstract

　 The context of this paper is the identification of the UK higher education system as the front-runner in terms of both institutional management and quality assurance. Within this context, the paper aims to analyse and examine the policies and the realities of ‘academic management’ and ‘internal quality assurance’, key concepts in pedagogical reform, in respect of UK universities, while searching for implications for the Japanese system.

　 Japanese policy discourse about higher education pedagogy is rooted in a naive belief in the effectiveness of academic management under institutional top management and governance as the mechanism for internally assuring the quality of teaching and learning. However, the results of an analysis and examination of internal quality assurance systems, including academic management procedures, in UK universities, suggest that strengthening the institutional management function is a necessary, but not a sufficient, precondition for substantiating academic quality assurance. This critical analysis of the reality of institutional engagement in quality assurance in UK higher education presents the view that the reality does not go beyond pro forma compliance with externally set guidelines and falls short of impacting teaching and learning processes, bearing ample testimony to the tricky complexities and difficulties involved in guaranteeing quality assurance in respect of university teaching.