Quality and Quality Enhancement: Is there a relationship?

Much of the work published on quality in higher education has focused on processes of quality assurance and on quality enhancement activity. Indeed, it is arguable that these two concerns underpin all discussions of quality in higher education and have done since the early days of discussion about quality in the sector. Most of the existing definitions of the two terms show that they are clearly distinct activities but there have been remarkably few studies that have directly explored the relationships between them. This paper reflects upon this issue with a view to stimulating further discussion within this journal. The paper explores existing research in the field. The paper argues that there is a spectrum of four main relationships between quality assurance and quality enhancement from one where the two work in isolation to a position where the two are fully integrated