Regulatory intermediation and quality assurance in higher education: the case of the auditors

Introduction This paper takes the external quality assurance of universities and colleges as an example of regulation in higher education. In many countries this function is undertaken by national agencies that undertake the classic regulatory functions of setting standards, monitoring activities, and applying pressure to secure behaviour modification where this is required (Baldwin and Cave, 1999). Although many in the national quality agencies would demur that they set standards – arguing that universities and their professional communities set standards which the agencies assure – the increasing use of codes, benchmarks, and frameworks within which such assurance is undertaken may be considered as constituting forms of standards-setting. This article examines how Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) auditors in England seek to reconcile these external and formal frameworks with long-standing, often less explicit, disciplinary and professional peer approaches.