Reconceptualizing Education Quality in Higher Education: Insights from Indonesian Islamic Universities for a Context-Sensitive Global Framework

Abstract

This study explored how education quality is conceptualized, enacted, and experienced within Indonesian Islamic universities, and developed a context-sensitive understanding of education quality that extends beyond dominant metric-driven frameworks. In responding to the limitations of standardized approaches to quality assurance in higher education, the study adopted a qualitative multiple-case design grounded in an interpretivist paradigm. Data was collected through semistructured interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis involving lecturers and students at three institutions. The findings reveal that education quality is not a fixed or universally defined construct, but a context-sensitive, relational, and value-infused process that is shaped by pedagogical practices, institutional conditions, and moral–spiritual orientations. Five interrelated dimensions of education quality emerged from the analysis: transformative learning, dialogic and participatory pedagogy, relational engagement, ethical–spiritual integration, and context-dependent enactment. The study highlights key tensions between transformative ideals and institutional constraints, as well as between normative value integration and its practical implementation. These tensions demonstrate that education quality is continuously negotiated rather than fully achieved. The study contributes to global debates by proposing a context-sensitive framework that expands existing understandings of quality beyond standardization and measurement. It offers theoretical and practical implications for developing more inclusive, flexible, and human-centered approaches to educational quality in diverse higher education contexts.