Continental approaches to promoting quality assurance in higher education in Africa

Abstract

The 20th century has witnessed several quality assurance initiatives implemented at different levels in the higher education space worldwide. Using Margaret Archer’s theory of Social Realism, this chapter critically reviews the literature on quality assurance initiatives in higher education in Africa with the purpose of identifying the current state of practice, challenges, opportunities and capacity development needs for the effective implementation of quality assurance in higher education on the African continent. The chapter establishes that Africa, on its own merit, has implemented several initiatives aimed at promoting quality assurance in higher education at institutional, national, regional and continental levels. However, Africa is still faced with an array of challenges in its quest for a continent-wide quality assurance system. Chief among these challenges are the major handicaps of language barriers, lack of expertise about quality assurance processes, inadequate capacity, too heavy teaching and administrative workloads of academics, and lack of financial resources. Therefore, this chapter concludes by offering suggestions based on experience from other continents on the successful approaches to quality assurance in terms of coordination and collaboration among different quality assurance agencies, associations and networks. Lastly, the chapter calls for the exploration of mechanisms that would consolidate strengthening the capacity in quality assurance in Africa’s higher education systems.