The Qualities of 'Quality' Within Tertiary Education Policy and Governance in New Zealand

Abstract

This research critically analyses the changing nature and role of higher education in New Zealand as reflected in the discursive framing of the concept of quality, its uses and performances in higher education. This study takes a critical cultural political economy view of New Zealand Tertiary Education policy [TES 2002, TES 2007, TES 2010] to problematise the strategically and selectively structured reality it presents of the sector. A key argument made is that concepts and ideas presented in the policies are often passed off as unproblematic in the name of national interest, consistency or normality. This study believes that trying to define quality is to ignore the performative aspect of quality and the ways it creates or changes behaviour in each context. It is the uses not the meanings, and the performance not the definitions of ‘quality’ that is of interest in this research. The key research questions explored are: (1) What are the different discursive and performative aspects of ‘quality’? (2) What uses and purpose(s) does ‘quality’ serve? (3) What are the implications of quality for the nature and role of higher education and its governance? These questions help focus the study’s investigation on how quality is talked about, why and with what consequences for higher education. Analysis of the policy focuses on the changing representations, uses, purposes and ways quality works to change behaviour as reflected in the three policies. This critical approach reveals both the performative and the discursive elements of quality, and the implications it has for higher education’s relationship with the state, markets and community, and the changing roles the concept has served in shaping higher education since 2000. The findings contend that in New Zealand, ‘quality’ goes beyond being a marker and a common comparative currency. It functions as a governance tool eliciting a range of desirable behaviour to support various policy goals in each context. It also serves as a marketing tool and a mechanism attached to the project of creating, enhancing and protecting the brand and image of New Zealand higher education in the international markets. In doing so quality questionably promises benefits to all stakeholders involved in higher education-the state, providers, students and labour markets.