Advancing Sustainability in Private Higher Education through Quality Assurance: A Study of Two Malaysian Private Universities

This study investigated the motivational constructs expressed by the stakeholders of two private universities in Malaysia and examined how these constructs help in advancing sustainability of the universities through quality assurance. Results were based on the findings from interviews and analysis of the academic programme administrator survey results. The findings revealed that the motivations for the two private universities to implement quality assurance policy can either be extrinsic or intrinsic and they differ according to their institutitonal mission and goals. However, three motivations seemed to be in congruence for the two universities. They were compliance to the Malaysian Qualifications Agency’s requirements, competitiveness in higher education industry and internal continuous improvement which indicated important elements for the private institutions to remain self-sustained in the increasingly challenging industry