Malaysian Academic Quality Assurance System in the Context of Issues, Challenges and Best Practices

Academic quality assurance system in Malaysia has evolved and improved into a positive direction. However, many challenges and issues have been highlighted from previous researches and audit findings to ensure the academic quality of the system. These studies explore the pertinent issues, challenges and practices that have been implemented in universities / colleges to assure the quality of the programmes. This study uses an interpretive paradigm and makes use of semi-structured interviews. The interviews have been conducted with several key people in the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) and Director of Quality in higher educational institutions (HEIs). Results from the interviews showed some of the best practices that need to be considered to improve the academic quality which consist of the setting up of quality unit, creating a culture of quality, developing information systems to support quality monitoring, and creating good communication channels. The best practices also play a role as the tacit knowledge that needs to be clearly expressed and shared among practitioners.