The politics of quality assurance: The Australian quality assurance program for higher education, 1993-1995

Using interest group theory and the idea of public policy development and application following sequential stages, this paper explores how key decisions were made about the establishment and implementation of the controversial national quality assurance program for higher education that operated in Australia from 1993 to 1995. The paper explains how Australia came to introduce a quality assurance program that differed substantially from those established in other OECD countries.