Higher Education Quality Committee Research Articles

CHAPTER 5: Responding to the Call for Higher Education Transformation in South Africa: The Need to See Beyond “Decolonization” to Contextualization of the Current Curriculum

South African higher education has undergone numerous social, political and cultural changes that call for transformation in the sector. This dates to decades of diplomatic conversations and active protests on old and progressively new antagonisms. Attention-grabbing student protests – popularly referred to as the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall campaigns – set a new tone and platform for reflection by leaders in the education sector, inclusive of higher- and basic education in South Africa. These have steered many conferences, seminars and research on “transformation” by national education departments, universities, colleges and organizations such as Universities South Africa (USAf). The same protests brought to light several other challenges, such as funding, accommodation, security and academic exclusions, among others. However, as obnoxious as the situation may seem, it still provides the necessary conditions for a deep reappraisal of current hegemonies within the sector, which provides opportunities for stakeholders to reimagine how to shape the goal of the sector. This chapter provides a discussion on how such reimagination has concentrated on the decolonization of the curriculum as a shot at achieving the transformation agenda. For example, the series of debates on decolonizing the curriculum as fundamental to informing and achieving transformed higher education as organized by the Council of Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC). We argue that this approach is limiting in focus and scope and impacts less on transformational challenges in higher education. It is suggested that an all-inclusive curriculum suited for globalization is contextualized. Such an approach would not only address the need to decolonize the higher education curriculum and provide cognitive justice but also other higher education challenges such as graduate employment and curriculum relevance to national and international economic growth.

Invisible Statues of Colonisation: Regulatory Curriculum Requirements in South African Higher Education

Over the past 20 years, the South African higher education (HE) system has become increasingly regularised. All programmes offered at South African public universities have to be registered and accredited by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET); the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) under the auspices of the Council on Higher Education (CHE); as well as the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). Such accreditation, registration and quality assurance is subject to a growing series of stringent regulatory frameworks that must be adhered to, chief amongst which are the Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF) and the Classification of Educational Subject Matter (CESM) manual and the later Addendum. Increased calls from both students and government for curriculum transformation and the decolonisation of HE require a critical review of the regulatory regime as one of the barriers to curriculum transformation at South African universities. The aim of this article is to present a conceptual analysis of the CESM and its regulatory context within a decolonial framework in order to show that the regulatory requirements for curricula have created a rigid and colonised conception of what universities may and may not teach. The CESM categories and their concomitant requirements have become the so-called invisible statues of colonisation based on narrow and morally decadent Western conceptions of academic disciplines in current university curricula.

Quality Assurance of Community Engagement in South African Higher Education Institutions: Problems and Prospects

ABSTRACT The quality assurance of community engagement was flagged as a major problem during the last cycle of audits of South African Higher Education Institutions (SAHEIs) by the Higher Education Quality Committee. Through the implementation of critical literature review methodology and comparing similarities and differences among SAHEIs in their reporting of their attempts at benchmarking, this article will present concrete proposals for a pathway to effective benchmarking of community engagement at SAHEIs. SAHEIs have looked at conceptual models to enable high-quality community engagement, but effective measuring tools have eluded their efforts. Through evaluating the critiques and recommendations of the Higher Education Quality Committee at all SAHEIs regarding community engagement as well as the responses thereto, this article will discuss the obstacles to developing quality assurance of community engagement and the prospects for overcoming them. Insights into key elements required in the benchmarking of community engagement will be drawn from the history of community engagement at SAHEIs from apartheid to democracy.

The contribution of a private higher education institution to the South African higher education landscape

Private Higher Education (PHE) in South Africa has been perceived to deliver programmes of questionable quality in search of profit maximisation (CHE 2016, 84). To curb this perception, the Council on Higher Education (CHE) has instituted strict regulations with regard to accrediting qualifications offered by Higher Education (HE) institutions. To determine the contributions of PHE to the South African higher education landscape, this article evaluates a registered management programme, on recommendation of the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) of the CHE, with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) (CHE, 2013). Using Kirkpatrick’s (1996) four-level model of training programme evaluation as the theoretical framework, the management programme was evaluated to determine its contribution to higher education in South Africa. The four levels included the perception of the learners, the knowledge gained by the learners, the learners’ performance in the workplace and the return on investment. Other stakeholders, such as the sponsor and students’ line managers, were interviewed to determine whether the programme has contributed to work outputs. Overall, the results show that the programme is contributing to the development of higher education in South Africa.

The development of an implementation framework for service-learning during the undergraduate nursing programme in the Western Cape Province.

BackgroundService-learning (SL) is a contested field of knowledge and issues of sustainability and scholarship have been raised about it. The South African Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) has provided policy documents to guide higher education institutions (HEIs) in the facilitation of SL institutionalisation in their academic programmes. An implementation framework was therefore needed to institutionalise the necessary epistemological shifts advocated in the national SL policy guidelines.ObjectivesThis article is based on the findings of a doctoral thesis that aimed at developing an SL implementation framework for the School of Nursing (SoN) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC).MethodMixed methods were used during the first four phases of the design and development intervention research model developed by Rothman and Thomas.ResultsThe SL implementation framework that was developed during Phase 3 specified the intervention elements to address the gaps that had been identified by the core findings of Phases 1 and 2. Four intervention elements were specified for the SL implementation framework. The first intervention element focused on the assessment of readiness for SL institutionalisation. The development of SL capacity and SL scholarship was regarded as the pivotal intervention element for three of the elements: the development of a contextual SL definition, an SL pedagogical model, and a monitoring and evaluation system for SL institutionalisation.ConclusionThe SL implementation framework satisfies the goals of SL institutionalisation, namely to develop a common language and a set of principles to guide practice, and to ensure the allocation of resources in order to facilitate the SL teaching methodology. The contextualised SL definition that was formulated for the SoN contributes to the SL operationalisation discourse at the HEI.

Community engagement as the organic link with the street: Creating a learning community between the academy and homeless people in Tshwane

Does the current community engagement project, of the Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology at the University of South Africa (UNISA), respond to the conceptual discourse on community engagement? Informed by this question this article’s objective is two-pronged. Firstly, an attempt is made to locate the project’s beginning in a proper historical perspective by engaging the initial ministry of the Department with homeless people. The narrative about the work of a Mennonite couple is told by structuring it around the dimensions of agency (identification or insertion), context analysis, strategies for mission and theological reflection or in simple terms, the reading of the Bible. Secondly, this article proceeds by subjecting both the initial ministry with homeless people and the community engagement project, in its current form, to the scrutiny of three high ranking publications from the Higher Education Quality Committee in collaboration with JET Education Services, the Council on Higher Education and a handbook on service learning in South Africa on the conceptual clarification of service learning and community engagement. As the documents reveal some difference of opinion amongst the experts, the bottom-line is that unless the interaction between the academy and the community (homeless people) is a consistent, sustainable, reciprocal and mutual process aimed at creating a genuine learning community, the project is called into question. A further issue is that the engagement between the parties must find reflection in what is taught – students or learners are to benefit from this – and researched.

A Social Realist Perspective: A quest for understanding quality practices in higher education

Key words: quality assurance, critical realism, social realism, analytical dualism, morphogenetic approach In this paper I argue that, for a focus on the enhancement of teaching and learning to have its intended positive impact, a ‘close-up’ look or contextualised understanding of the way academics work with conceptions of quality and the policies and procedures that are intended to promote it are necessary. The paper proposes that research located in Bhaskar’s critical realism and Archer’s social realism provides a means of producing these understandings. This kind of research is important because, in spite of the introduction of quality assurance into South African higher education, the system continues to be plagued by poor performance reflected not only in low success and graduation rates with high attrition rates but also in the poor quality of graduates. As such, this has led the body responsible for quality assurance, the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) to embark on the next cycle of its work which focusses specifically on teaching and learning.

Quality Management of Short Courses at Higher Education Institutions in South Africa: A Comparative Study

The Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) conducted its first cycle of institutional audit exercises from 2004 – 2009 at private and public universities in South Africa. This study follows on the HEQC audit panel’s report, with reference to the offering of short courses (SCs) by Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s). The HEQC informed some institutions that the quality assurance system of SCs is not on par with the requirements of the HEQC. Therefore, it does not meet the minimum standards for an effective quality management system for SCs. It is imperative for institutions to conceptualise the quality management of SCs and to develop a system that ensures ongoing improvement. This study addresses this gap by conceptualising the quality management of SCs on national level in higher education. The study draws on good practices on national level that can inform the refinement of the existing quality assurance system for SCs at HEI’s. The empirical study was conducted with public institutions of higher learning in South Africa. Quantitative data were collected from all 23 public institutions of higher learning. analysed and interpreted during this study. The study revealed that it is imperative for higher education institutions to develop quality assurance systems that are based on cyclical processes of ongoing improvement. The study highlights the value of the principles of Total Quality Management, the notion of continuous improvement, self-evaluation and external monitoring. Recommendations in this study suggest that HEI’s should conduct further institutional benchmarking exercises with the five institutions that received commendations and full delegations, in order to develop a conceptual model for understanding and enhancing its SC offerings. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p390

THE EVALUATION OF ONE PUBLIC NURSING COLLEGE IN TERMS OF THE PROGRAMME CRITERIA OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION QUALITY COMMITTEE

The purpose of the study was to do an evaluation of the KwaZulu-Natal College of Nursing against the seven input criteria of the Higher Education Quality Committee and make recommendations about improvements necessary in order for the College to become accredited with this body. The evaluation was based on a survey of all teaching sites of the Nursing College, involving an architect and nurse educators. Questionnaires, interviews and site inspection check lists were developed and used to collect data. An initial data summary was done by the team leader, and this was first discussed with the evaluation team and then validated in a meeting with the College staff. The results addressed each of the seven criteria and it was found that only one (assessment) was met, while three were partially met and three not met. It became evident that 70-80% of the KZN CN budget is spent on salaries of staff and students. The implication is that a minimal percentage could have been spent on teaching and learning. South African Colleges of Nursing will never be able to adhere to the standards of higher education, except if the governance context changes to favour the autonomy of these colleges. The biggest challenge lies in adequate funding to ensure quality standards within the college teaching and learning environment, although system development and adequate facilities are also serious limitations.

A ZERO SAMPLING PLAN FOR THE MODERATION OF EXAMINATION PAPERS

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Quality assurance within local educational institutions has been under the spotlight in recent years. In particular these institutions are increasingly subjected to minimum standards specified by controlling bodies such as the Higher Education Quality Committee and others. The moderation of examination papers is an important quality assurance activity to ensure that an examination paper

Quality assurance policy frameworks and mechanisms in former technikons

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.

The review of teacher education programmes and transformational quality

The Higher Education Quality Committee’s definition of quality (HEQC 2001) includes standard elements familiar to other higher education systems as well as elements specific to South Africa’s own contextual priorities and purposes. These elements are fitness for and of purpose, value for money, and individual and social transformation (Singh 2006). This article addresses the latter quality element by assessing whether and to what extent the 2006/7 review of teacher education programmes potentially impacted upon these programmes. The study was conducted at one higher education institution where teacher education programmes were reviewed by the HEQC in 2006 and preliminary results have been announced to the institution. Processes, outcomes and follow-up actions by relevant programme committees were explored by means of questionnaires and a post hoc focus group interview involving members of these committees. The results were analysed to determine whether transformational quality had indeed been enhanced by the HEQC review. Indications from the research are that attempts at transformational quality were affected, albeit on a limited scale. The article argues whether or not further measures should be introduced to enhance transformational quality without damaging institutional autonomy and academic freedom.

Internal quality assurance reviews: challenges and processes – Walter Sisulu University\'s Business, Management Sciences and Law Faculty

The Council for Higher Educations' (CHE) Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) requires internal quality evaluations to be performed on the various programmes offered by the Faculty before visitation by the HEQC. This article examines some of the challenges and processes followed by six of the departments of Walter Sisulu University's Faculty of Business, Management Sciences and Law utilising a case study approach. Challenges are identified and highlighted across the Faculty. Furthermore, examination of the processes followed and challenges encountered by the Department of Public Relations Management and Communication is utilised, whilst conducting an internal quality evaluation on the National Diploma: Public Relations Management. The article recommends a number of strategies that may be followed to smooth the process. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 22 (4) 2008: pp. 827-842

The influence of school leadership preparation programmes: Identification of possible focus areas

The Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) is responsible for the accreditation of public and private institutions and their learning programmes in South Africa. This body has identified a number of criteria in order to determine the effectiveness of school leadership preparation programmes. One of them focuses on the influence of the programme on school practice. The article attempts to identify possible areas of investigation in order to evaluate the influence of preparation programmes for school managers. Three major focus areas are identified that can be used to in assessing the influence of preparation programmes for school managers: setting a course, developing people and developing the organisation. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 22 (4) 2008: pp. 889-905

Institutional Audits: A Comparison of the Experiences of Three South African Universities

South Africa's external quality assurance agency, the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC), commenced its first cycle of institutional audits in 2004. During 2005, three public higher education institutions were audited, namely the University of Cape Town, the University of Stellenbosch and Rhodes University. The process of preparing for and undergoing an external audit is being observed with great interest by the country's higher education sector, particularly by those institutions still to be audited. This paper compares the three institutional contexts within which the audit preparations took place and analyses the results of the internal feedback surveys, as well as the recommendations contained in the HEQC's audit reports, with particular reference to the goals of the HEQC's audit framework. Transformation imperatives have informed the approach of the HEQC to the audits. The paper concludes that, although each institution approached the audit in different, context‐specific ways, the institutional experience of the audit process and its initial outcomes were remarkably similar.

Democratisation and quality assurance in South African higher education

The article interprets a particular set of debates on whether quality assurance in South African higher education widens democracy or not. The interpretation explores the extent to which higher education quality assurance fulfils three conditions posited for democracy (inclusion, participation and enhancement), drawing in as points of reference goals for quality in higher education as articulated by the Higher Education Quality Committee (fitness of purpose, fitness for purpose, value for money and transformation) and principles for higher education set out in the Constitution and national higher education policy (academic freedom, institutional autonomy and public accountability). Its findings include, firstly, that if quality assurance in higher education is to serve the public good, then an inclusive, as well as a socially accountable, understanding of such concepts as 'fitness of purpose' and 'value for money' must be achieved and implemented. Secondly, quality assurance can be fully compatible with democratisation, as well as with the goals and purposes of autonomous academic institutions, where stakeholder involvement in the co-production of quality proceeds from the bottom up on the basis of inclusive understandings of intellectual freedom and accountability. Thirdly, quality assurance supports the development of critical citizens where it aligns with this traditional role of higher education through an empowering approach of its own. The work of achieving outcomes such as these three is of necessity ongoing and is moreover located within unresolved issues in higher education quality assurance generally.

Theorising stakeholder participation within the higher education quality assurance system in South Africa

The South African Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) is currently involved with its second round of national programme reviews in the field of education. Such national reviews are designed to foster quality and equity within the broader Higher Education (HE) system as whole, through peer evaluation and public discourse processes and decision-making. One of the key features of this South African Higher Education Quality Assurance (HEQA) system has been its extended attempt to build into its processes as much stakeholder participation as possible. While admirable in their intent, the processes of stakeholder participation in this HEQA System have been rather limited and poorly conceptualised. To date, there has been no attempt to theorize and / or explain in any greater detail the role of stakeholders (and / or stakeholder participation) in the South African HEQA processes and systems. This article is one attempt to do just that. After examining the history and context of stakeholder participation in the South African Higher Education (HE) generally, the article proposes a possible framework for theorising stakeholder participation in South African HE and especially in the current HEQA system underway in the country. Although such a framework is yet to be tested through the realities of the messy processes of stakeholder involvement and participation using data from the various reviews themselves, its possible implications and advantages to higher education and the quality assurance processes thereof are explored in the article.

The Introduction of External Quality Assurance in South African Higher Education: An Analysis of Stakeholder Response

This paper analyses the take‐up of proposals for a national quality assurance system in South Africa using different approaches to quality assurance to classify stakeholder responses to survey and interview questions. The context of the study was the introduction of an external quality assurance system for South African higher education by an agency of the Department of Education, the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) in 2004. A conceptual framework using Habermas’s distinctions between system and strategic action on the one hand and lifeworld and communicative action on the other was set up to map different approaches to quality assurance and to analyse the data. Stakeholder opinion on the HEQC’s proposals for institutional audit and programme accreditation was gathered using survey questionnaire and depth‐interview instruments. Given that quality assurance in South Africa has been conceived as a means of furthering the state’s ‘transformation agenda’ for higher education, different and sometimes conflicting approaches to quality assurance exist in the higher education community—underpinned by different values, discourses and purposes for higher education. The study shows that these differences of opinion were shaped more strongly by the respondents’ position in the social structure (apartheid defined class and race position) than by their social role (academic, manager, quality assurance manager) in the policy‐making process. The paper concludes by suggesting that this finding may be explained if one understands the adoption and intended implementation of quality assurance policy to be a lifeworld matter. The contribution of Habermas’ notions of lifeworld and system to conceptualising and understanding quality assurance systems is put forward.

Refining lecturers' assessment practices through formal professional development at Rhodes University

The Higher Education Quality Committee's emphasis on the assessment of student learning in its criteria for institutional audits (June 2004) signals that institutional arrangements to ensure quality assessment practices are to come under the spotlight. One means to demonstrate institutional commitment to quality in assessment practice is to provide formal training programmes enabling lecturers to become accredited as assessors. But the central issue for many South African institutions of higher education is how to successfully develop assessment capacity and accredit lecturers as assessors. This article discusses a professional development course which targets capacity building and the accreditation of lecturers as assessors. It challenges how far the `assessor unit standards' guide towards an effective curriculum and details the curriculum design and implementation processes of the Rhodes' course, which was considered to have promoted assessment innovation, despite initial resistance to change. The discussion is illustrated by course evaluation data as well as interview data with course participants. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 20(1) 2006: 157-169

A pilot audit exercise based on the principles of total quality management: a case study

This article is based on a case study on the pilot audit experience of the Vaal University of Technology (VUT). The VUT was one of the three institutions of higher learning to take part in the pilot audit exercise of the Higher Education Quality Committee. The article reflects on the impact that the audit had on the enhancement of quality at the VUT as well as the value of a centralized quality assurance system. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 19(6) 2005:1033-1046