The right question is,

What is the reality of the similarity/dissimilarity between the institutional and program accreditation processes (standards) on the one hand, and the Rankings of Higher Education Institutions on the other ?

It is well known that the concept of quality in higher education is a compound concept which depends on many dimensions and factors. Moreover, there exist many common quality approaches which are used to assess the quality and performance of HEIs.

In the last decade, the performance and quality measurement approaches of institutional activities have become critical factors in society knowledge, and hence institutions have adopted different approaches to achieve high quality and performance.

The quality of HEIs has received significant attention in the last two decades and HEIs have endeavored hard to demonstrate their obligations in transparency and accountability through institutional mission, vision and setting of goals and objectives in their strategic plans. Some of the common goals/objectives are: to develop a culture of academic excellence, to create centres of excellence with the highest standards in research, to operate good services, to enhance institutional internationalization and to develop society engagement.

Moreover, the capability and possibility of effectively assessing the HEIs is now widely important and required as a way of informing the government, stakeholders, society and students regarding a number of core issues. Some of these issues are; Monitoring of the university’s strategic goals, Accountability in terms of fulfilling the mission of the University and Providing information for decision-making and/or promotion of the University .

In fact, the debate concerning the best/ most efficient approach of assuring the quality of HEIs is an old one. But, some of the most common approaches in determining the quality of HEIs were conducted by the ISO 9001 standards and Business Excellence Models (BEM). Some others were:

• Institutional and Program Accreditation Processes (Standards);

• Rankings of HEIs;

• External Quality Monitoring (EQM), also referred to as External Quality Review

·      (EQR);

• Assessment-and-Outcomes Movement, which calls for the development of performance evidence and attention to value-added questions;

• SMART performance pyramid and

• Accountability and performance indicator outcomes.