The quality issues at departmental level at a recently merged

Abstract

Quality assurance is an important subject in modern universities. After discussing several theoretical aspects of quality and quality assurance, the authors conclude that the care taken by heads of academic departments or directors of academic schools in the process of quality assurance may be regarded as one of the key elements of ensuring good quality in an institute of higher education. In order to gain more insight into this aspect of life at an institution of higher education, an empirical survey was done among a number of heads of academic departments/ directors of academic schools at a university that was recently formed as a result of a merger between a historically white university and a historically black university. It was found that, because of various historical and organisational culture differences between the two campuses of the new university, there were several differences in managers' approaches to quality and quality assurance, and that it will probably take a considerable time for quality assurance processes to take final shape at the new university. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 20(1) 2006: 101-117