The purpose of the Academic Audit Project, a project supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, was to identify the "lessons learned" from implementing academic audits in Europe and Asia and to develop prototypes to use in the United States.
An academic audit is a form of external quality assurance that has the following characteristics:
1. It presumes an institutional corporate responsibility for academic standards and quality assurance.
2. It utilizes external, process-oriented quality reviews.
3. It focuses on student learning.
4. It is oriented toward improvement and institutional capacity building.
The principle investigator has studied academic audit processes implemented in the United Kingdom, Europe, Sweden, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. Based on his findings, he has outlined the lessons learned by these countries in developing academic audits and suggested audit prototypes for professional accreditors, regional accreditors, and state coordinating or governing boards in the US. He has also presented the audit concept to interested parties, including a seminar featuring the foreign architects of the academic audit for state policymakers and accreditation professionals.
Project Materials:
Implementing Academic Audits: Lessons Learned in Europe and Asia
Toward a Prototype for Academic Audit in the US
Sample Academic Audits:
Academic Audit of the University of Warwick, UK
Teaching Learning Quality Process Review of the Hong
Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
Contact: David Dill,
Project Director,
CB#3435 Abernethy Hall
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3435
(919) 962-1600
Fax (919) 962-5824