Notions of Quality and Excellence Within a Centre for Excellence Initiative in Higher Education

Abstract While initiatives that aim to achieve excellence within research in higher education are quite common, initiatives focusing on excellence within education is a more recent phenomenon. This article reports on a document study of calls for proposals, applications and reports from the Norwegian ’Centres for Excellence in Education’ Initiative. Based on the central literature in the field, the study investigates the notions of ‘quality’ and ‘excellence’ that can be identified. The findings revealed four groups of notions of educational quality and excellence: ‘subject-specific’, ‘education-centred’, ‘sector-targeted’ and ‘sector-wide’ notions. The analysis also revealed a skewed distribution between statements pointing inwards to the institutions or subject areas versus outwards to the higher education sector and society, in favour of the inbound notions. The increased impact and participation of students within the centres stood out as an example of ‘whose quality’ has influenced the identified notions. The article concludes by questioning the prominence of excellence within the initiative, asking whether excellence is more of an attitude than something the centres have managed to express or something to reach for rather than something to achieve.