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The Quality Assurance in Turkish Higher Education

& & & 2521& & & The&quality&assurance&in&Turkish&higher&education& & & Gamze!Sart! ! Problem! Statement:! The! ranking! lists! of! the! universities! are! becoming! more! and! more! important! since! they! develop! benchmarking! among! the! universities! in!terms!of!the!quality!assurance!to!ensure!the!standards.!Research!Questions:! Each! ranking! has! different! criteria! and! indicators! in! terms! of! dimensions! and! denominations.! Hence,! the! scores! of! the! universities! in! the! ranking! lists! can! lead! misunderstanding,! particularly! for! the! university! administrations! Purpose! of! the! Study:! Although! ranking! lists! have! technical! problems! rather! than! conceptual,! most! of! them! are! not! seriously! taken! into! account! in! Turkish! universities.! The! purpose! of! this! study! is! to! understand! the! university! administrations’!attitudes!in!Turkey!towards!the!university!ranking!lists!from! the! perspective! of! the! quality! assurancecurriculum,! teaching! methods,! research,! internalization,! and! college! organization! Research! Methods:! Using! ethnography! as! the! methodology,! 28! university! administrators! who! were! faculty! members! of! 7! universities! (4! public! and! 3! private)! were! interviewed! and! two! surveys! were! employed! to! collect! perceptions! and! demographics.! At! the! time! of! the! study,! the! ranking! lists! had! just! announced.! After! completed,! all! the! data! of! the! interviews! were! analyzed! in! Atlas.ti! 7.! Findings:! The! faculty(89! %)felt! that! the! ranking! lists! had! positive! impact! on! the! quality! assurance! of! the! curriculum,! teaching! methods,! research,! internalization,! and! college! organization.! However,! some(26%)were! complaining! about! the! limited! knowledge! of! the! university! administrations! about! the! quality! assurance! from! the! perspective! of! the! rankings.! According! to! the! data! of! the! majority! (93%)the! administration! did! not! have! short! and! long! term! strategies.! Conclusions:! In! conclusion,! as! the! data! showed! that! the! ranking! lists! criteria! can! be! used! to! improve! the! quality! assurance! in! curriculum,! teaching! methods,! research,! internalization,! and! college! organization.! The! university! administration!could!take!the!dimensions!and!denominations!into!account!as!a! benchmarking! to! improve! the! quality,! while! developing! the! values! inside! the! organizations,!particularly!in!those!research!universities.! ! !