Trust in quality management: from compliance to enhancement

This paper explores trust within two different systems of quality management in higher education: a compliance-oriented approach in Ethiopia and an enhancement-led approach in Finland. Our focus is on how trust is promoted between HEIs, quality assurance agencies and other key stakeholders. Data was collected through interviews, document review and feedback from HEIs and other stakeholders. Conceptual models of quality management and theoretical perspectives of trust are applied. Our findings suggest that a higher education system characterised by normative instruments of trust-building and enhancement-led quality management may offer a more fruitful ground for robust stakeholder engagement and enhancing trusting relationships than a system with rationalist mechanisms of trust-building and an accountability-oriented quality management model. The paper provides fresh insights into the conceptual and theoretical links between trust and quality management models, and the implications for stakeholder engagement. It highlights best practices for building trust, considering culturally sensitive issues.