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University rankings have become increasingly popular and have penetrated higher education globally. However, it is disputable whether rankings can contribute to the quality assurance of higher education institutions. The present study examined this issue by exploring the mechanism of rankings as an external force influencing university change. It investigated the case of the Chinese Disciplinary Ranking (CDR) and found that university behaviour changed to some extent in terms of resource allocation and internal policies. Priority was placed on areas that were more important for universities to obtain higher rankings. However, the contributions of those changes to quality assurance and improvement were not very evident at either the institutional or systemic levels. The analysis determined that the consequences of the CDR were the result of the interaction between higher education institutions and external ranking schemes. Rankings have inherent limitations as an external force in contributing to quality assurance in higher education.

This research analyses an external higher education quality assessment scheme in China, namely, the Quality Assessment of Undergraduate Education (QAUE) scheme. Case studies were conducted in three Chinese universities with different statuses. Analysis shows that the evaluated institutions responded to the external requirements of the QAUE actively, but the actual effects of the QAUE on university operations were not as high as expected. The empirical study of the QAUE indicates that quality assessments can trigger university change as an external force, but genuine change can only occur when it is integrated with internal motivation and capacities for change. The external and internal forces involved in the process are detailed. The analysis also shows that there is limited impetus for quality assessment as an external force driving university change. This is determined by the functional mechanism of quality assessment per se.

This research analyzes the scheme proposed to assess the quality of higher education institutions in China, namely, the Quality Assessment of Undergraduate Education (QAUE) scheme. This article aims to determine the impact of the QAUE on universities and explore the reasons that intended effects have or have not been generated in the evaluated universities by conducting case studies of three Chinese universities with different statuses. The empirical studies show the effects on the various dimensions of quality provisions at different universities were not the same. It was found that the impact of the QAUE was not a linear consequence of policy implementation, but the result of an interaction between the external quality assessment scheme and the evaluated universities. Quality assessment is regarded to be an external force to cause universities to change. This empirical study of the QAUE shows that changes will only take place when the external force is integrated with the evaluated universities' internal motivation and capacity.

This paper analyses a higher education policy issued in China in 2002: the Quality Assessment of Undergraduate Education Policy. The policy was designed with four main objectives: improvement, compliance, information and accountability. However, it has not completely fulfilled its objectives, especially regarding improvement and accountability, and it has had some unexpected consequences. Reflections on the quality assessment policy show that both inevitable and contingent factors have led to low efficiency. The authors identify the main reasons for this and propose ways to improve the policy based on the principles of the incremental and rational models of policy making and reform.