This article argues that localizing access – a general ethical principle – is a workable strategy that can be used in approaching participants in qualitative research across disciplines and in coping with respective institutional practices in order to collect meaningful data. This article is based on the autobiographical, lived experiences of the authors during the period of their data collection in Cameroon in 2013 and 2015, by the second and first author, respectively. Therefore, generalization across a broader context is somewhat restricted, and a closer analysis of specific cultural and situational realities is needed. The article addresses two main objectives, that is, to identify factors that inhibit and factors that facilitate access to individuals and institutions. To this end, the article employs self-reflexivity and provides valuable explanations on the workability of applying skills of negotiating access in a local cultural context.
In 1999, the European Bologna Process reinforced quality assurance (QA) in higher education (HE). While Cameroon is a signatory non-member state of the Bologna Process, many unresolved quality concerns in its HE system still exist because the Bologna Process has been adopted on an a-la-cartebasis whereby some action lines have been adopted while others have notfor instance QA. In Cameroonian HE,QA is a neglected pillar of the Bologna Process. This article examines some undisclosed quality concerns regarding Cameroonian HE in the advent of the Bologna Process. The study employs a qualitative research design using interviews and focus group discussions. Findings present quality concerns regarding: the lack of adequate educational resources; periodic monitoring, follow up/mentoring; student admission; and university ranking. The paper suggests a reconsideration of the Bologna Process in Cameroonian HE as a process and not an event with more action lines adopted such as QA; and the use of Total Quality Management (TQM) principles as workable strategies used in solving quality concerns in HE.
Conditionality has always been an integral aspect of multinational aid schemes for so many decades. While some studies have been conducted on aid conditionality across different aspects of development, human social existence, educational sectors and context s; less attention has been paid to what goes on within the framework of higher education (HE) especially in Africa at large and Cameroon in particular. Using interviews, focus group discussions and text documents, this article examines academic conditionality perceived as negative, metaphors of aid conditionality depicting problems, and some implications of aid conditionality for multinational finance of higher education institutions (HEIs) and educational policy borrowing in Africa/Cameroon by learning from existing literature. Conclusively, the article suggests that multinational aid donors should be encouraged to reinforce academic conditionality perceived as positive, and not academic conditionality perceived as negative in order to obtain a win-win relationship with aid recipients.
The ‘external dimension’ of the Bologna Process (BP) has enhanced the scientific interest in the influence of the ‘Bologna Message’ outside Europe, with the 2006 Zgaga report focusing on the prospects of global adaptation among non-European ‘partners’. Many African countries have aligned themselves with the BP by adapting their curricular structure and qualifications in line with the European Bologna architecture geared at maintaining relationships with their ex-colonial European imperialists; for instance, Cameroon, and its ex-imperialists Britain and France. Arguably, although the BP has sparked convergence at the higher global level, many divergences occur at the lower national/institutional levels. This article compares and contrasts the implementation of the BP reform in Cameroonian and UK universities with a focus on the credit value system. It employs Bennett’s model of policy convergence as theoretical framework. Using a qualitative approach, it thematically analyses secondary data (text documents). Findings indicate that although the Cameroonian and UK HE systems converge by adopting the BP credit system, both HE systems diverge upon implementation resulting from different outcomes, problems and/or criticisms encountered. Knowledge of the findings are relevant in providing insights on the BP realities which can be informative in drawing up stocktaking reports (regarding the achievements and failures of the reform), redirect focus, assessments and facilitate future monitoring and progress of the reform within the Bologna community.
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