Shared misunderstandings? Competing and conflicting meaning structures in quality assurance

Figures & data

Table 1. Structural comparison of the field’s main interpretive patterns.

	Consumer protection pattern	Educative pattern	Entrepreneurial pattern	Managerial pattern	Quality engineering pattern
Notion of quality assurance or quality management	QA ensures the quality of a product or process and provides product information for consumers	QA induces and facilitates improvement-oriented change	QA helps to reduce cost, advertise institutional strengths and offers competitive advantages	QA helps to improve the performance of individuals or institutions	QA supports the definition, operationalisation, measurement and control of quality
Notion of higher education institution	Service or goods provider	Organisation in need of development	Entrepreneur/competitor	Company	Ensemble of structures and processes
Main actor constellations	Provider—consumer—regulator	Institutions as learners—government and agencies as educators	Entrepreneurs—competitors	Managers—managed	Functional parts of a system/system developers and maintenance workers
Main sponsors in the discourse	Employers/ Students/ QA agencies	Ministry/QA agencies/senior management	Ministry/QA agencies/senior management	Senior management/QA and management experts	Senior management/QA and management experts
Main instruments and approaches	Standards and checklists; certifications and accreditations	Benchmarking; rankings; evaluations	Rankings; instruments of	Rules and regulations; management information systems	‘Toolbox’ approach: different instruments for different purposes

QA = quality assurance