Quality assurance in Saudi Arabian higher education

Quality assurance (QA) in higher education is one of the most prominent fields of higher education research at present. In the Saudi Arabian higher education sector, however, quality assurance is a relatively new concept. The National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA) in 2009 developed a set of Standards for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, applied to all higher educational universities in Saudi Arabia, both public and private (NCAAA, 2009). This study aims to investigate the status quo of quality assurance in the Saudi Arabian higher education system by putting under the spotlight the quality assurance practices of two specific Saudi Arabian universities (namely, Prince Sultan University [PSU] and King Abdulaziz University [KAU]), and thereby to contribute to both closing the literature gap on the Saudi Arabian higher education system and development of internal quality assurance model. This is a qualitative, multiple-case study that takes up data on the opinions and perceptions of university administrative staff and faculty at both KAU and PSU related to QA. Document analysis and semi-structured interview were collected to address the research questions, and relying on the insights of institutional theory, participants were divided into two groups to compare perceptions at the meso versus the micro level. Data analysis at each level elaborated thematic categories, subcategories, and key themes followed by sequence compressions analysis using two approaches to comparison, namely the vertical, within-case comparison and the horizontal, across-case comparison. In addition, textual verbatim excerpts from the interviews are included to highlight and clarify the key concepts (themes) revealed. NVivo 10 qualitative analysis software was used to assist in the coding and development of patterns from the data. From the elaboration of thematic categories and the comparison of elements and categories throughout the analysis, the overarching themes developed represent the perceptions of stakeholders at each level in each case institution in relation to the associated research questions. These results are compared and, on their basis, a normative internal quality assurance model developed that can be recommended for implementation at both KAU and PSU and in other Saudi Arabian higher education institutions.

Grantor dc:publisher

UNSW, Sydney

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Albaqami, Saud

• Policy.
• Quality assurance.
• Accreditation.
• Higher education.

Statement dc:rights

• open access
• CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
• free_to_read

Licence

• https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/

Language dc:language

EN

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/3025

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:unsworks.library.unsw.edu.au:1959.4/56763