THE IMPACT OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION MARKET COMPETITION ON UNIVERSITIES QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

As the national and international competition in the higher education market is rising, the demands for better quality management in universities are increasing. Knowing the effects of the competition on quality management practices is useful in the strategic and operational quality management for policy makers, university managers, quality assessors and practitioners. The objective of this paper is to provide explanations about the direct and indirect effects of the level of competition between universities on their quality management practices, disputing the opinion that great quality in higher education can occur in a artificially policy generated "no competition vitro" and strengthening the idea that best quality management practices - in universities, as in any other type of organizations - are made only as a reactive or proactive response to free market competition. This paper is based on 9 case studies about quality certification (3), accreditation (3), national and international quality assurance systems (2) and internally generated quality measures (1) in HE. Important parts of the analysis in the case studies were concerning the transferability of QM concepts and practices from industry (as originating environment) to HE.