A neo-institutional framework for the appropriation of quality assurance in Moroccan public and public-private partnership universities

Abstract

Quality assurance now rests, in most higher education systems, on national agencies that apply common standards. In Morocco, a single national framework applies to public universities and to universities created through a public-private partnership (PPP). Quality models do not explain why institutions subject to the same requirements apply them differently, and a documented search found no study comparing how universities of different legal status appropriate the same framework. This conceptual article therefore asks the following question. To what extent does a university’s legal status shape the way it appropriates the national quality assurance framework? Legal status is understood as a set of constraints and resources, including funding, governance and the employment of teaching staff. We combine isomorphism, decoupling and institutional logics, observed through appropriation, quality culture and stakeholder salience. The framework distinguishes the formal from the actual level of quality assurance systems and places each system on a continuum from compliance to improvement. Five propositions and one rival proposition are derived. Formal structures should converge, whereas purposes should diverge, towards compliance in the public university, where the state logic is central, and towards improvement in the PPP university, unless the market logic leads mainly to signalling. Founding partners and fee-paying students are expected to weigh more on the system in the PPP university, and in both universities improvement should depend on leadership that translates external requirements into an internal project. The contribution is incremental and partly contextual. If corroborated, the propositions would invite reflection on a more differentiated national evaluation.

JEL Classification: I23, I28, L33

Paper type: Theoretical Research