The findings of the study will be based on two main pillars – documentary analysis and field study including interviews and questionnaires.
In terms of document data, the current institutional quality assurance documents will be analysed from both universities. At the institutional level, data from the document sources will be collected though a search of the public university’s website or hard copies as available. The document analysis data will be derived from mission statements, strategic plans, and external and internal quality audits, and the current annual quality assurance reports in each university.
In terms of interview and questionnaire survey data, a semi-structured interview approach will be employed in this study, and conducted in 45-minute, in-depth, face-to-face individual interviews between the researcher and five academic leader participants in each university. The semi-structured interview will be based on open-ended questions or general topics to guide the researcher. Following the interviews, an open-ended questionnaire will be designed to obtain both qualitative and quantitative data from academic staff within each university, in order to gauge their perceptions about quality assurance and ways of improving quality assurance at undergraduate levels. the interview questions and questionnaires guided by two academic leaders and two senior lecturers in order to hone both the questions and researcher interviewing skills and promote effectiveness of the questionnaires.