Is employer engagement effective in external quality assurance of higher education? A paradigm shift or QA disruption from quality assurance perspectives in Asia

Abstract Due to global attention on student employability, employers are expected be involved in institutional governance higher education and quality assurance (QA). the difficulties recruiting motivated participate external QA process, this has become a challenging issue many Asian nations. The paper aims explore employer legitimacy national regulations EQA system according four-dimensional diagram of model. There two major findings. First, governments developed policies with focus engagement but emerging practice is still ineffective. Second, approaches vary context context, such as HK Malaysia excellence mode; Taiwan, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand belong advanced type; China, Thailand, Vietnam fall intermediate category.