Learning and Teaching Centres in Global Higher Education: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis on their Effectiveness

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Altunoğlu A., Babacan T.

YÜKSEKÖĞRETIM DERGISI, cilt.16, sa.2, ss.261-275, 2026 (ESCI)

Özet

Objective: Due to growing emphasis on quality teaching in higher education, universities worldwide have established Learning and Teaching Centers (LTCs). However, the literature often focuses on local-level case studies or descriptive ones, thus comparative perspective on the effectiveness of these centers remains limited. Methods: This study*, ** is designed on a qualitative comparative analysis approach and a multiple case study. Accordingly, open-access documents published by the LTCs at ten universities selected based on the Times Higher Education rankings and representing different higher education regions were examined and analyzed using qualitative comparative analysis methods. Results: The results revealed four key conditions that constitute the effectiveness of the centers: strengthened innovative pedagogies, high institutional capacity, active student engagement, and rigorous quality mechanisms. The findings demonstrate that effectiveness arises from specific alignments of these four conditions. Conclusions and Recommendations: While multiple pathways can lead to effectiveness, institutional capacity consistently emerges as a critical condition. The findings also reveal a Western dominance, with the strongest configurations observed in North American and European contexts, while alternative pathways in non-Western contexts indicate how effectiveness can also emerge through compensatory mechanisms. It is recommended that further comparative research be conducted in context-specific settings, and that institutional capacity be prioritized to ensure the sustainability.