Quality, standards, the consumer paradigm and developments in higher education

Outlines the present state of play in the development of the new quality agency and considers some problems of attempting to define “quality” and “standards”. Considers these and methods of quality assurance in the context of consumerism. Compares present HEFCE methodology with a number of well‐known approaches to “quality” and “continuous improvement”. Discusses how the new agency might learn from these and embrace more robust methods post the year 2000.