Quality assurance and quality enhancement in Malaysian higher education

The large-scale development of the higher education system in Malaysia since independence is seen in the system providing education for its own citizens and at the same time developing as an education hub, bringing foreign universities and international students to the country. With students’increasing demand for higher education worldwide and the range of higher education options in Malaysia, there is competitive pressure on Malaysian higher education institutions (HEIs) to attract students.Concurrently, global awareness of the importance of educational quality assurance (QA) (Lakin, Elliot, & Liu, 2015) means that Malaysian institutions must make clear their good practice through compliance with QA standards. Specifically, since 2007, based on the Malaysian Qualifications Framework (MQF) that prescribes national criteria and standards for qualifications,the major processes through which the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) has set out QA standards are the Code of Practice for Programme Accreditation (COPPA) and the Code of Practice for Institutional Audit (COPIA).