The academic voice in English and Czech higher education quality

Abstract

PurposeThis paper sets out to report on a research project investigating the academic voice in higher education quality in the UK and the Czech Republic. It aims to describe the origins and reasons for introducing quality monitoring and assurance into higher education, showing the differences and impacts on higher education quality in England and the Czech Republic, including the current practices and presenting the concerns and issues voiced by the academics and higher education leaders in both higher education systems.Design/methodology/approachThe research utilised a critical event narrative inquiry method, which focuses on issues of complexity and human‐centredness in studied phenomena. In this way the method addresses issues that are frequently overlooked by quantitative research methods. It is argued that, by extracting “critical events,” the method is more efficient in dealing with large amounts of data, which often result from the use of qualitative research methods. In the presented research, “critical events” voicing important issues and concerns in higher education quality are extracted from stories of UK and Czech academics and higher education leaders.FindingsThrough extracting “critical events” in the professional practice of academics and higher education leaders, the research uncovered some similar and some culture‐specific issues voiced by Czech and UK academics and higher education leaders. The culture‐specific issues were revealed mainly in the Czech higher education context.Practical implicationsThe research uncovered a number of issues and concerns which were overlooked in the current higher education quality practices in both the higher education systems. The paper does not present all the recommendations for educational practice and further research. These may be consulted in Mertova's Quality in Higher Education: Stories of English and Czech Academics and Higher Education Leader.Originality/valueThe research applied a critical event narrative inquiry methodology, which is a novel qualitative research method focusing on extracting “critical events” in the professional practice of individuals, in this case academics and higher education leaders. Even though the methodology was developed by Webster and Mertova, the study has further refined it and applied it in the field of higher education quality.