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Quality
assurance is a new term that has come into the higher education
vocabulary over the past decade or so. While there are many
definitions of quality assurance in the literature (eg, see
Ball, 1985; Birnbaum, 1994; Lindsay, 1992; van Vught and
Westcrheijden, 1992), in essence, quality assurance refers to
systematic management and assessment procedures adopted to
ensure achievement of specified quality or improved quality, and
to enable key stakeholders to have confidence in the management
of quality and the outcomes achieved. Stakeholders are
individuals and groups who have a major interest in the higher
education institution or system and its achievements. Some
authors (eg Brcnnan, 1997) prefer use of the term quality
assessment instead of term quality assurance.
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