features of quality assurance system in tertiary education

Quality assurance in tertiary education means structural, systematic and continuous attention to educational quality in order to maintain and improve quality. quality assurance includes the two purposes of improvement and accountability. the balance between these two purposes is not easy and they are often considered incompatible. accountability is defined as auditing the expected legal and legitimate activities. process of improvement is about encouraging future performance rather than judging past performance. there are many debates whether these two terms are in balance or conflict. in general, it seems that accountability and quality improvement are related. another issue that is important in quality assurance is internal and external review. both types of review have properties. for example, external review is more important in accountability and internal review is important in ensuring improvement. in this article, the importance of accountability and improvement in quality assurance and the existence of internal and external review is investigated.