The Quest for Quality

Sinclair Goodlad asks: why is it so difficult to define quality; what are the key issues that should be addressed; and what action can and should be taken in the absence of any agreed definition of quality? In so doing, he examines a number of issues concerning the basic stuff of higher education - curriculum, teaching methods, research, college organization - that go deeper than the administrative shell that is the usual focus of the quality debate. At the same time he offers examples and case studies in which broad issues regarding good practice are earthed in particularities. Throughout, his provocative notion of 'heresies' offers grist for discussion wherever the aims, purposes and practices of higher education are being examined.
The Quest for Quality sets out the basis for a systematic approach to higher education, and is an important book for anyone who has a serious interest in what modern universities should be and do.

Sinclair Goodlad is Senior Lecturer in the Presentation of Technical Information and Director of the Humanities Programme at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London.