Following the enormous success of the Sixth Quality in Higher Education International Seminar, on the 'End of Quality?', supported by SRHE, it emerged that there is a pressing need for a transformation in the nature, conceptualisation and evaluation of quality in higher education.

As a result, the Seventh Quality in Higher Education International Seminar took place in Melbourne 31st October–1st November 2002. Entitled 'Transforming Quality', it was a joint endeavour of two research centres in the antipodes of the world: the Centre for Research into Quality in Birmingham, UK and the Centre for Management Quality Research, in Melbourne, Australia.

At the heart of the Transforming Quality seminar were focussed discussion groups, augmented by keynotes and parallel papers. There were three interlinked themes for the discussions on transforming quality:

1. Transformation of what constitutes a quality experience in higher education: to what extent is their a need to reconceptualise how higher education engages with access, employability and funding issues?
2. To what is extent is quality in higher education perceived in terms of the way it transforms students: what constitutes a high quality learning process and outcomes
3. How might quality evaluation be transformed to help improve the quality of the experience and of the learning?