A proposed internal quality audit framework for Cambodian private higher education

• Main Author: Uttara, Sok
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2008
• Subjects: Education, Higher > Cambodia; Auditing, Internal; Educational Leadership; Higher Education
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/240
• Institution: De La Salle University

The main aim of the study was to propose an internal quality audit framework for Cambodian private HEIs. The general question answered in this study was, What is the nature and status of the internal quality audit practices of Cambodian private HEIs? This study is a descriptive multiple-case study. Drawing on related literature, particularly the UK academic quality audit frameworks, the researcher developed an internal quality audit framework that incorporated eight components of internal quality audit: concepts of internal quality audit, rationale, purpose, audit policies and guidance notes, auditors, audit strategies and methodologies, scope, and report writing, dissemination and follow-up actions. In order to guarantee that the data collected are complete, relevant, and true, the researcher adopted the methodological triangulation technique. The researcher employed such instruments as questionnaire and interview protocol supplemented by related document analysis. The interview protocol was a set of open-ended questions about the actual internal quality audit practices, and the questionnaire was a mix of both closed and open-ended questions about the profile of the participant universities. The researcher analyzed the data obtained from the questionnaire, interviews, and gathered tangible documents following the four-step procedure developed by Stake (1995): categorical aggregation, direct interpretation, established patterns, and naturalistic generalization. As a result, an initial integrated internal quality audit framework emerged from the strength-weakness-similarity-difference analysis. To guarantee the reliability, availability, and suitability of the to-be proposed IQA framework, the initial internal quality audit framework was validated by comparing it with the extant literature and the UK IQA practices. At this step, the researcher identified the actual practices that were congruent and those that were not congruent with the extant literature. Those actual practices that were common among most, if not all, of the participant universities and congruent with the extant literature were considered as the inputs of the proposed framework, while those that were not common among those participant universities but congruent with the extant literature were suggested for consideration. The findings indicate that all the participant universities conducted internal quality audit to fulfill three purposes: recognition, accountability, and continuous improvement. However, the continuous improvement seemed to be the primary concern of all those participant universities, and the focus was predominantly on the input rather than the process and output of the educational system.