Table 2: Perspectives on Quality in Higher Education: Representative Indicators

1. Reputational View

Indicators: Peer judgments of the quality of the program, students, faculty or resources

Advantage: Raters supposedly are those who know best what quality is.

Disadvantage: Focus is on scholarly productivity and past, not the instructional program and the present.

2. Resources View

Indicators: Student selectivity, faculty prestige, faculty training, faculty teaching loads, budget affluence, library holdings, equipment adequacy, size of endowment.

Advantage: Measures are readily available, current, and comparable across institutions.

Disadvantage: Little evidence resources equate with student learning.

3. Outcomes View

Indicators: Faculty scholarly productivity, faculty awards and honors, faculty research support, faculty teaching performance, student achievement following graduation, student placement, alumni satisfaction.

Advantage: Many indicators are comparable across institutions.

Disadvantage: Difficult to determine how much of outcome is attributable to the institution; focus is on past, rather than present.

4. Value-added View

Indicators: Change in students' cognitive abilities, student personal development, student career development, social benefits.

Advantage: Takes account of the quality of the student upon enrollment.

Disadvantage: expensive and cannot eliminate alternative explanations for gains.