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Abstract
There are lots of definitions of quality, and also of quality in education. Garvin (Citation1984) discerns five approaches: the transcendental approach, the product‐oriented approach, the customer‐oriented approach, the manufacturing‐oriented approach and the value‐for‐money approach. Harvey and Green (Citation1993) give five interrelated concepts of quality as: exceptional, perfection (or consistency), fitness for purpose, value for money and transformative.
A new definition of quality is needed to explain recent quality issues in higher education. This article describes a quality concept with four constituents: object, standard, subject and values. The article elaborates on the values. Four value systems derived from Beck and Cowan (Citation1996) are transformed into four value systems on quality and quality management: control, continuous improvement, commitment and breakthrough. These value systems make it possible to explain some recent developments in quality management in higher education.