Quality assurance policy frameworks and mechanisms in former technikons

Abstract

Opportunities to study and explain the quality assurance policy framework and mechanisms in former technikons in response to the growth in programme re-accreditation have become an isolated territory. Conceptually, this was a legacy study looking at the extent to which quality structures and practices were already entrenched in Universities of Technology as a result of their association with a prior QA regime under which they operated for between ten to twelve years – that is, SERTEC. The thesis of the study was that Universities of Technology would exhibit a sound state of readiness for the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) by way of establishing quality assurance structures. The study was conducted with 30 academic heads of department from 6 institutions. With the aid of structured interviews, questionnaires and documentary data were used to identify the implementation gap between the intentions underpinning the quality framework and actual outcomes. The study revealed that generally, the Universities of technology had instituted enabling quality assurance infrastructures and environments for them to easily accommodate the incoming Council on Higher Education / Higher Education Quality Committee regime. This suggested that for a few exceptions, the SERTEC regime had helped to institute more than just an awareness of the need for the necessary structures, but also a policy framework, and an overall enabling environment. There was a legacy of quality in the institutions, although a number of quality gaps still existed in terms of the overall organizational quality platform. The thesis of the study was therefore generally found to be tenable. Key words: Quality improvement, programme re-accreditations and quality enhancement.