The Idea of Quality: Voicing the Educational

Abstract What counts as quality is contested. The different views of quality generate different methods of assessing quality and, in particular, generate alternative sets of performance indicators (PIs). However, PIs are highly limited in their informational content, and have nothing directly to tell us about the quality of the educational processes. Given the contested character of ‘quality’, performance evaluation should be framed so as to permit the equal expression of legitimate voices, though founded on the teaching staffs critical self‐reflections. The anarchy of viewpoints that this approach might seem to generate can be combated in part by focusing performance review on the educational processes and the educational development of the students. Doubts remain about the allegiance of the academic community to such an educational agenda.