20.500.12556/DKUM-96378 Collaborative leadership for quality assurance a case study on developing a strategic quality manual in higher education Higher education institutions face growing pressure to demonstrate excellence and strategic alignment in quality assurance, particularly to meet international accreditation standards. This paper presents a case study of a business faculty that undertook a leadership-driven initiative to develop a comprehensive Quality Manual aimed at continuous improvement and accreditation readiness. The project was structured as a multi-phase, collaborative effort involving broad stakeholder engagement, benchmarking of best practices, and alignment with international accreditation frameworks and the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG), as well as relevant national quality assurance requirements. The resulting Quality Manual provides a unified framework for quality assurance (QA) across all key areas—governance, academic programmes, research, student support, partnerships—linking institutional strategy to daily processes. Key outcomes of the case include clarified roles and procedures, integrated feedback loops, and enhanced readiness for accreditation. The development process highlighted the critical role of educational leadership in fostering a quality culture; by engaging faculty, staff, students, and external partners, the leadership built shared ownership of QA goals. The study is guided by two research questions: (1) How can collaborative and distributed leadership support the development of a strategically aligned Quality Manual at the faculty level? (2) How does the process of designing and implementing a Quality Manual contribute to strengthening internal QA and fostering a quality culture? The study discusses challenges and lessons learned in leading such change, emphasising the importance of stakeholder collaboration, strategic alignment, and change management. The findings contribute theoretically by illustrating how faculty-level leadership operationalizes QA frameworks into concrete institutional tools, and practically by offering a structured model for developing a strategic Quality Manual in higher education. educational leadership quality assurance strategic alignment accreditation higher education quality culture stakeholder engagement true false true Angleški jezik Angleški jezik Znanstveno delo 2025-12-23 10:05:29 2025-12-23 10:05:29 2025-12-24 03:19:42 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2025 0 0 str. 1-21 issue 12, [art. no.] 1627 Vol. 15 2025 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova NiDoloceno apc 2025-09-18 2025-11-30 2025-01-01 378 262682883 10.3390/educsci15121627 2227-7102 https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/15/12/1627 1 895ebca5-dfde-11f0-8aa3-00155d580e02 https://dk.um.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=201661 RAZ_Sirec_Karin_2025.pdf RAZ_Sirec_Karin_2025.pdf 1 AFACDA923397F4A98F3C2902FBD7DECF c066710d1b0670d3096c53898ee1520863bee452b73e7b04112b0436cce3658a c0651667-dfde-11f0-8aa3-00155d580e02 https://dk.um.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=201662 Ekonomsko-poslovna fakulteta 0 0 0