# Synthesis: Governance Reform Timing Under Accreditation Pressure

## Section 3.1 — Temporal Clustering of Governance Reforms

Research on institutional behaviour under external quality assurance pressure
consistently shows that governance reforms cluster in the period leading up to
formal review. Smith and Lee (2024) demonstrate that accreditation-driven
governance changes concentrate in the 18-month window immediately preceding
each accreditation review cycle.

This 18-month clustering pattern has significant implications for interpreting
institutional change data. Policy analysts who observe a surge in governance
activity during that window should interpret it as a strategic pre-review
response rather than organic organisational learning.

## Section 3.2 — Implications for Longitudinal Study Design

Because the 18-month pre-review window is now empirically established (Smith
& Lee, 2024), longitudinal designs that sample at fixed calendar intervals may
systematically over-sample or under-sample reform activity depending on their
alignment with the review calendar.
