Five Dimensions of Quality: A Common Sense Guide to Accreditation and Accountability by L. Suskie (review)

Five Dimensions of Quality presents an engaging overview of the accreditation process for higher education institutions that is most effective at addressing and providing suggestions to a wide range of concerns of the many stakeholders participating in the accreditation process on university campuses. Suskie explains accreditation not solely in terms of compliance and accountability but also in the context of how higher education institutions can provide a quality education. The book is organized by a framework Suskie created that identifies five dimensions that contribute to an excellent education. A clear overview and suggestions are provided on each dimension. What makes this framework stand out most to those working in higher education is that, based on her research, Suskie contends that the dimensions of the framework contribute to an education that would be considered excellent by all seven regional accrediting bodies, and most likely by other nonregional accrediting bodies.

Although the accreditation process is often viewed as a measure of accountability and compliance, Suskie's book frames accreditation as a process in which institutions can focus on developing into an excellent institution in order to solve both issues unique to the institution and widespread across higher education. Suskie discusses both the enduring challenges, including defining what is a quality education and how to demonstrate quality to external stakeholders, and emerging conflicts that higher education institutions face, such as how to meet the needs of current college students and ensuring they obtain the competencies they will need after they graduate. Higher education institutions will only succeed if they are able to create a "culture of betterment," which provides a quality education that continually strives for improvement based on evidence. In order for such a culture to be fostered, Suskie argues, five dimensions must be addressed: relevance, community, focus and aspiration, evidence, and betterment.

After providing an introduction to explain accreditation and the benefits and challenges that it poses for higher education institutions, Suskie dedicates a section to each dimension and further breaks it down into chapters to describe important aspects of each dimension. Readers are asked to think of exploring the five dimensions of quality as if going on a road trip. Based on the author's extensive experience with accreditation, each chapter describes the dimension and how institutions can implement or improve on the dimension. For example, the section on "A Culture of Evidence" is further broken down into subsequent chapters on success, usefulness, targets, and transparency. Throughout the text, "Jargon Alerts" are provided to explain names of organizations or clarify concepts relating to accreditation. Additionally, each chapter ends with a "For More Information" section with action steps and suggested readings pertaining to that specific topic.

The strengths of Suskie's book is addressing real concerns by campus stakeholders in regards to assessment. A chapter is dedicated to the difficulty colleges face in developing a quality education and meeting accreditation requirements. Namely, reasons why resistance exists to assessment and accreditation are explored and suggestions for navigating these resistances are offered. Additionally, the confusion over developing a culture of betterment that is reflective of an institution's mission and appropriate for its stakeholders. Suskie recognizes that creating a culture of betterment is incredibly difficult. To move away from mediocrity to excellence while parallel and competing realities and understandings of what excellence entails is true for every institution.

Although the book excels in being easily accessible to anyone on campus, it can seem at times hard to determine whose responsibility, within the higher education institution, it is to address these issues. There are clear lines of responsibilities in any organization and providing more guidance on who should be present to address some of these issues would be helpful to the reader. For example, in chapter 6, the discussion on finances would only involve a limited number of people on campus, yet, it is written in a way...