Abstract The extant literature on quality assurance in higher education points to a dearth of empirical studies on students’ conceptions of quality in higher education. This interpretivist article reports on a study that explored the conceptions of quality in higher education by final year undergraduate students in six academic disciplines at Makerere University, Uganda. Data for the article was collected from 50 final year students in eight discipline-specific focus group discussions and was analysed using thematic analysis. Four conceptions of quality in higher education were evident from the participants’ responses, namely: quality as transformation (value-added); quality as fitness for purpose; quality as excellence; and quality as consistency/ perfection (zero-errors). Nevertheless, transformation and fitness for purpose featured as the dominant conceptions of quality in higher education and these conceptions of quality did not take place in a vacuum. The students rationalised transformation and fitness for purpose by what they perceived the purpose of higher education to be. The multiple and yet competing purposes of higher education occasioned the two definitions of quality in higher education. Therefore, consensus on the meaning of quality can be hastened by arriving at a common purpose of higher education in a given society rather than engaging with the notions of quality themselves. This thinking presupposes the idea that the purpose of higher education varies across time and space and the definition of quality in higher education should be responsive to the prevailing purpose(s) of higher education in a given society.

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阐明高等教育质量：学生怎么说？

摘要现有关于高等教育质量保证的文献指出，缺乏对学生高等教育质量观念的实证研究。这篇解释论者文章报道了一项研究，该研究探索了乌干达马凯雷雷大学六个学科的本科生的高等教育质量观念。这篇文章的数据是在八个学科特定的焦点小组讨论中从50名最后一年的学生那里收集的，并使用主题分析进行了分析。从参与者的反应中可以明显看出高等教育质量的四个概念，即：作为转化的质量（增值）；质量适合目的；品质至上 和质量作为一致性/完美性（零错误）。不过，变革和适应目的是高等教育中占主导地位的质量概念，而这些质量概念并不是在真空中发生的。学生通过他们所认为的高等教育目标来合理化改造和适应目标。高等教育的多重但又相互竞争的目的提出了高等教育质量的两个定义。因此，可以通过在给定的社会中达到高等教育的共同目标，而不是与质量概念本身接触，来加快对质量含义的共识。这种想法以这样一个思想为前提：高等教育的目标随时间和空间而变化，高等教育的质量定义应响应给定社会中高等教育的普遍目标。