Sid Nair

The Influence of Strategy and External Quality Audit on University Performance: An Australian perspective

External quality audits have been introduced in many parts of the world including Asia Pacific, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. While external quality audits have been introduced for more than a decade in some countries like New Zealand, the United Kingdom (UK), Denmark, and Sweden, there is limited research on the extent to which such audits have improved the performance of universities on educational measures. This paper is based on a large public university in Australia that has used strategy implementation and external quality audit as an opportunity for change and improvement. The paper argues that effective strategy implementation, external quality audits, and internal reviews and improvement processes, if effectively managed, could improve performance of the university on various educational measures. The paper compares various performance data of the university: two years pre-strategy implementation and external quality audit and three years post-audit. Finally, the paper argues that a systematic approach to reviews with evidence-based decision-making enables the university to address the areas needing improvement and address the priorities in a timely manner.