Convergence and Diversity of Quality Assurance Systems in Distance Education for Higher Education

In the context of growing globalization in distance education, there is an urgent need for international initiatives to review quality assurance (QA)mechanisms of distance education for higher education at the national and institutional level, discuss new challenges of a changing distance education environment, and build a capacity for quality assurance to enhance the quality provision in a globalized higher education market. This paper reports the results of a survey conducted between May and early June 2004. The survey was designed to collect data on several key aspects of an internal quality assurance system of distance teaching institutions, discuss similarities and differences found in the data, and provide an opportunity for capacity building for quality assurance to enhance the quality provision in distance education. Nine mega distance teaching universities and 6 other institutions responded to the survey. The survey results show that there exists a variety of QA systems of distance education even though the globalization and competitiveness of higher education and the development of technology have brought distance teaching universities closer together in terms of developing a common quality culture.