Quality Systems at Universities in Academics’ Perception: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

New public management, as well as institutional and market pressure, brought business-like requirements to HEIs. Their implementation resulted in profound changes in university governance. This paper presents a systematic literature review of the scholars’ perception of a quality system introduced by new public management and the corporatization of universities. The implications of the new practices and discourses for academic identity, university governance, power-balance, as well as the role of a scholar are investigated. The findings reveal that the underlying values and university culture stay in tension with managerialist ideology. The presence of the institutional logics approach in a university context was also examined. It enabled to analyze whether it was used in the context of providing insight into the academics’ perception of quality assurance systems.