Defining Quality Higher Education in an Emerging Economy: A Case of Cebu, Philippines

Abstract

For a robust economy, unemployment may be caused by job-mismatch, and job-mismatch is often associated with unemployable degree holders. A possible reason for this mismatch is the lack of a standard definition of what is quality higher education (HE) from the perspective of various stakeholders, namely, the educators, employers, and students. To get their definitions of quality HE, we interviewed 10 educators and eight employers from different industries using a non-probability sampling technique. For the sixty students, we used systematic sampling technique and purposive sampling. We collected and categorized their responses using an unstructured interview format and a thematic analysis approach, respectively.  Our findings suggest that all three stakeholders based their perception of quality HE through the relevance of curriculum and quality of graduates. The quality of the educators, availability of resources, and societal impact also affect the perceived quality of the HEIs. Since the business environment is fast-changing, the HEIs need to invite the industry to participate in the student learning process, curriculum design, and in the process of upgrading their resources.  Secondly, aside from the employability of the graduates, HEIs should also focus on the graduates' ability and willingness to learn new knowledge and skills on their own.