This
paper provides an example of how the trend toward quality assurance plays out
at the local level. Its focus on the alignment of Argentine universities to the
global quality assurance movement and explore the reasons why Argentine
reaction has been slow. With historical background and analysis of the current
context, the authors provide evidence for their hypothesis that ?a slow
response results from the complexity associated with the decision-making
process of collegiate governing bodies?. They contend that the benchmarks set
up by new quality assurance standards involve a social, as well as a technical,
dimension and argue further that institution of a quality assurance mechanism
has been slow due to the way the autonomous governing bodies function as social
units.
