Academic Leadership and Internal Quality Assurance Effectiveness in Higher Education: The Mediating Role of Quality Culture

Higher education institutions are increasingly required to demonstrate accountability, transparency, and continuous quality improvement in response to accreditation requirements, stakeholder expectations, and global competitiveness. Although Academic Leadership and Quality Culture have been recognized as important dimensions of higher education quality management, empirical evidence on how these constructs are structurally associated with Internal Quality Assurance Effectiveness (IQAE) remains limited. This study examines the structural relationships among Academic Leadership, Quality Culture, and Internal Quality Assurance Effectiveness, with Quality Culture specified as a mediating construct. A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was employed with 103 academic and quality assurance stakeholders from 23 study programs within one higher education institution. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with 5,000 bootstrap subsamples. The measurement model demonstrated satisfactory reliability and convergent validity, with Cronbach’s Alpha values ranging from 0.962 to 0.979, Composite Reliability values from 0.966 to 0.981, and Average Variance Extracted values from 0.654 to 0.774. The structural model explained 65.4% of the variance in Quality Culture and 84.0% of the variance in IQAE. Academic Leadership was positively associated with Quality Culture (? = 0.809, p < 0.001) and IQAE (? = 0.219, p = 0.008), while Quality Culture was positively associated with IQAE (? = 0.731, p < 0.001). Quality Culture also significantly mediated the association between Academic Leadership and IQAE (? = 0.591, p < 0.001). These findings suggest that Quality Culture represents an important organizational mechanism linking Academic Leadership with the perceived effectiveness of internal quality assurance. The study contributes to higher education quality management research by providing empirical evidence on the interconnected roles of leadership and quality culture in supporting internal quality assurance within a higher education context. Received: 03 July 2026 / Accepted: 13 October 2026 / Published: November 2026