Quality assurance systems can play a role in ensuring that the quality of teaching is
at a minimum acceptable standard. However, its direct impact on actually enhancing
the quality of teaching and learning may be restricted. To move successfully
towards improving teaching quality it seems necessary to have some form of staff or
educational development initiative in place (McKay and Kember 1999, 4).
There are a number of reasons why quality assurance measures may have limited
impact on improving the quality of teaching and learning and may even have
unanticipated side effects which are actually harmful. Some reasons may be: