Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Foreign Language Education

Book excerpt: Greater student mobility, increasing demand for access to tertiary education, as well as policy changes have spurred rapid expansion of the global higher education sector. However, with increased demand comes considerable variation in the quality of the supply. As higher education is an expensive endeavor for all stakeholders – governments, funders, employers, and families – there are also increasing expectations for accountability and demonstrations of quality. English as a foreign language (EFL) programs, in particular, are under considerable pressure to substantiate their value, resulting in a significant rise in interest around their quality. This volume is the outcome of a May 2018 international conference on quality and specialized accreditation, held in Turkey. The book’s three sections take the reader from the global to the program level, examining trends and best practices in quality assurance and accreditation in EFL programs. The book’s geographic focus is primarily the Middle East and Turkey, yet the issues discussed herein a quite global in nature. This volume will be of interest to educational administrators at the institutional or program level, educational leadership programs focusing on higher education, language teacher preparation programs, and administrators in centralized education systems or accrediting organizations.