Purpose: Quality assurance and management is vital for the continuous improvement of the content, delivery and development of teacher education programmes. This paper seeks to explore theoretical issues and ideas in assessing the quality preparation of teachers in the Singapore context. Design/methodology/approach: An academic quality framework provides an architectural approach to optimizing quality processes, transitioning from a disjointed set of quality processes to an integrated workflow based upon established best practices. Findings: The architectural framework provided a systematic focus to develop and sustain the academic quality of the teacher development programmes. Quality change and developments occur through collaboration and learning. The emphasis is on quality management as a process-oriented strategy. Originality/value: There is a shift in paradigm from traditional models of programme evaluation to a systems approach that incorporate multi-dimensional models to impact administration, teaching and research in a teacher education institution. Thus Singapore's teacher education quality management should be considered beyond a set of measurement tools towards a systematic, scheduled and focused examination as a whole, as a process-oriented strategy.