Abstract
Since the advent of the knowledge economy society, quality assurance plays a major role in the development and implementation of qualifications frameworks needed in order to promote academic mobility. This article reviews quality assurance initiatives launched at national, sub-regional and regional levels in Africa. It analyzes the results achieved, challenges and opportunities and maps out future prospects. The article also raises a series of research questions that are required to further improve quality assurance in Africa.
Highlights
It is generally agreed that over the last two decades the quality of higher education has declined in several African countries, mainly due to rapid increase in student enrollments, poor standards of libraries and laboratories, inadequate pedagogic training of academic staff, and limited capacity of quality-assurance mechanisms
SUBREGIONAL LEVEL The African and Malagasy Council for Higher Education was established in 1968, with the main objective of harmonizing academic programs and policies related to staff recruitment and promotion in its member states
Since 2005, the council implements harmonization of programs through a reform that aims at aligning the degrees structure in Francophone countries to the three Anglophone bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees
Summary
It is generally agreed that over the last two decades the quality of higher education has declined in several African countries, mainly due to rapid increase in student enrollments, poor standards of libraries and laboratories, inadequate pedagogic training of academic staff, and limited capacity of quality-assurance mechanisms. This article identifies and analyzes the various higher education quality regimes and briefly discusses the challenges to implementing quality assurance, as well as the aspirations of African countries identified in recent commissioned research. Several quality-assurance agencies have been established to enhance quality of higher education at national, subregional, and continental levels.
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