Policy change and higher education quality assurance: The role for policy networks, globalization and internationalization in Germany, Ontario & the UK

Ontario, Germany and the UK all changed their policies in higher education in the late 1990s to adopt publicly funded, system-wide quality assurance processes. Each of these jurisdictions seemed to use similar discourse to define and explain the motivations for these policies. At first blush, it seemed that these three different regimes had each adopted very similar policies for measuring and ensuring quality existed within their public higher education institutions offering undergraduate degrees. Distinct differences exist, however, among these three quality assurance regimes. While similar discourse pervades their definition and similar measurements seem to have emerged, the path to policy change in these three jurisdictions was very different and this resulted in varying governance structures. This research seeks to explain why these differences emerged.;The main research question is: Why did the UK, Germany, and Ontario all adopt quality assurance regimes with different governance arrangements, varying breadth in application, and distinct methods of attracting investment? To fully appreciate the scope of the question, this research uses and extends our understanding of institutions, policy communities/policy networks, internationalization and globalization in the policy change process. Using a sectoral level analysis and the method of differences among similar industrialized countries, this research argues that variations in quality assurance policies exist because of variations in the influence of globalization on the policy paradigms of national policymakers; variations in the types and changes in the national policy community and policy network; and variations in the influence of internationalization on the learning opportunities and linkages within the policy network.