Student Participation in Quality Assurance opening doors, creating opportunities

Abstract

In higher education, the stakeholders’ views are crucial and should be taken into consideration by the education providers when improving quality processes. The turnaround to student-centered views of education today has necessitated students’ active participation in quality assurance procedures. However, how and on what levels students should be involved, is not fully understood yet in all countries. This current study was designed to take a closer look at the extent and nature of the activities which higher education institutions in Bahrain offer to their students in order to involve them in the quality assurance process. So, a mixed-methods survey was used to generate both quantitative and qualitative data from 1451 students from six different institutions in Bahrain. The selection of these institutions was based on their age, size, and resource availability to obtain a comprehensive picture of the topic under study. The collected data from students revealed that those institutions have recently introduced students into their quality assurance practices but that they have limited students’ role to an evaluator status. That is, students are only allowed to voice their opinions usually by completing questionnaires and rarely by attending interviews and meetings. Institutions then apply changes without informing students about the decisions made upon their feedback. The researcher also examined the effects of gender, year of study, level of degree, field of study, and grade on student participation. The results of this analysis shed interesting light on who are the participating students and in which parts of the quality assurance process these students have been involved. Moreover, it was found that some university-specific and external environmental factors have influenced the practice of student participation in quality assurance procedures. These factors include, among many others, government intervention, external review panels, university leadership and staff. Generally, the findings of this study highlight the need for a change within the higher education context to enable the student voice to be valued as an effective means of enhancing the quality of education. This can be through both encouraging openness and creating a climate of positive input. Such practices represent the keystone for the democratisation, growth and wellbeing of the society. Limitations of the current study, as well as implications for research and educators are discussed.