Strategic Analysis for Accreditation in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Case Analysis of KAU and PSU

Quality assurance strategies and standards have long been employed—at least since the dawn of the industrial age, which introduced mass operations and mass production to meet the needs of consumers. In any workplace, plans and strategies are systematically devised and guidelines are implemented in order to ensure the conformity of operations and systems to government or privately established and recognized standards. The high expectations applied to the educational sector cause particularly great demand for standardized quality assurance strategies. This has led to the establishment of accreditation institutions—external organizations that have developed and promulgated standards for quality and have evaluated colleges and universities according to these standards (ESIB, 2006; NAPCIS, 2012). In Saudi Arabia, the quality assurance directives of NCAAA require educational institutions to establish dedicated quality assurance models. The present study was intended to assess the current state of quality assurance implementation at Saudi Arabian higher education institutions and develop a normative quality assurance model based upon the inferences obtained, to be used as a guideline for future quality assurance systems in Saudi higher education institutions. For this purpose, qualitative research was conducted using two case studies—KAU and PSU—and was cross-analyzed and presented. The present article provides a discussion of the findings presented.