Discourses and alternatives of quality culture in higher education

Abstract

This paper examines how quality culture has been discursively constructed in higher education scholarship and policy, and develops an alternative conceptualization grounded in academic values rather than governance imperatives. Quality culture has become a central reference point in higher education, frequently positioned as a bridge between compliance-oriented quality assurance and enhancement-focused approaches. Despite its collegial rhetoric, the concept is embedded in wider socio-political rationalities that shape how institutions understand and enact quality. Drawing on Torraco's (2005) integrative review Grant and Booth's (2009) typology, the paper conducts a critical review of foundational, empirical, and policy-oriented scholarship on quality culture. It identifies three dominant framings of neoliberalism: quality culture, situated in accountability and efficiency; managerialism, which appropriates collegial language to advance organizational control; and global competition, which positions it as a mechanism for rankings and reputation. The analysis shows that these framings are not separate problems but expressions of a single functionalist commitment: culture treated as a property of the institution that can be managed. The same conception reabsorbs ostensibly alternative frameworks, which keep culture as a variable to be specified and measured. The division that matters, then, is not between dominant and alternative discourses but between treating culture as something the institution has and something it is. Quality culture must be re-anchored in trust, collegiality, student partnership, and public purpose, treated as emergent conditions rather than managed outcomes, if it is to be distinguished from institutional compliance.