Conceptualising ‘quality work’ in higher education

Abstract

The issue of quality enhancement within higher education has attracted considerable research interest and the article suggest that managerial and cultural approaches have thus far dominated the literature in the field. While acknowledging the importance of both management and culture, the article argues for the relevance of ‘quality work’ as a concept to better understand the processes involved in quality enhancement. By advocating that a stronger focus should be given on analysing practices, the article underlines the role of individual actors and their actions for understanding the foundations related to both quality maintenance and enhancement, as well as the research needed to empirically investigate these processes.