Internal Quality Assurance and Improvement of University Utilizing Institutional Research

Summary form only given. In recent years, internal quality assurance in higher education becomes an international and universal trend. Many advanced precedents and studies in United States and Australia have been introduced. On the other hand, some governments provide their universities with comparatively large amount of research funds, like in United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Japan and so on. Therefore, universities in these countries have significant roles to the societies, as well as they are greatly expected about their scholarly work and scientific research. Quality assurance is generally a system of improvement based on monitoring quality. In this keynote speech, I would like to consider the state of internal quality assurance of universities including not only education but also scholarly research activity and social contributions. Especially, from Japanese viewpoints of National University Corporation Evaluation and Institutional Certified Evaluation and Accreditation, I will discuss (1) collection of institutional information and its application, and (2) establishment of PDCA cycle based on objective information analysis and effective planning.