Measuring Quality in (Post)Graduate Education and Research Training


Brisbane, Australia

Higher education and research systems around the world are engaged in intensified efforts to meaningfully measure the quality and outcomes of their programs. In part, these efforts are driven by governmental and societal demands for accountability and greater transparency surrounding what students and the larger society can expect to gain in return for their investment in higher education.

To date, governments, pan-governmental organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the higher education sector have focused almost exclusively on quality assessment and learning outcomes at the undergraduate level. The more focused nature of (post)-graduate education however, particularly in its research component, almost universally requires specific outputs in the form of identifiable and transferable skills as well as theses and dissertations by which to judge the quality of research outcomes and the quality of education and training overall.

The 2010 Strategic Leaders Global Summit addressed specific types of quantitative and qualitative measurement designed to improve the quality and assess the outcomes of (post)-graduate education and research:

• Admissions
• Attrition/Completion
• Time to Degree
• Program Content & Design
• Education & Research Training Environment
• Mentoring & Supervision
• International collaboration & mobility
• Skills & competencies
•  Examination
• Outcomes
• Employment Destinations

Event Materials:

• Summit Agenda (PDF)

• Press Release (PDF)

• Principles and Practices for Measuring Quality in (Post)-Graduate Education (PDF) 
• Proceedings of the 2010 Strategic Leaders Global Summit on Graduate Education

CGS contributions to the 2010 Summit were supported by a generous gift from ProQuest.