Background: The COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, has caused a swift change in the higher education system giving way to a rise in instituting multimodal teaching and learning approaches. These approaches have demonstrated an inadequate capacity for multimodal teaching, particularly through online instruction by many institutions. The Department of Higher Education in South Africa did its utmost best to equip the institutions with the required resources to continue with the provision of education. Methods: A descriptive qualitative research design was followed in the study. The study data source included the South African government’s COVID-19 regulations relating to higher education and training. The purposive sampling method was used to select (8) several government documents relating to the regulation of COVID-19 in higher education and training institutions Document analysis technique was used to collect data from the COVID-19 pandemic regulation documents. Results: the study showed that most HEIs in South Africa adhere to safety measures, ensure business continuity in teaching and learning, continued with the distribution of National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) allowances as allocated by the government, and followed procedures for returning certain categories of students on campuses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions: The study has evaluated the support for quality higher education teaching and learning during the pandemic period in South Africa. The study, therefore, recommends the continuing of online teaching as part of blended learning so that institutions could always be ready should situations like this occurs again in the future and above be in sync with digital transformation.
Background: A programme review is a process that assesses the status, efficacy, and advancement of academic programmes and aids in determining their future needs, priorities, and direction. The purpose of the academic programme review is to demonstrate that the programmehas appropriate quality assurance processes and procedures in place in accordance with the applicable established criteria and to offer ongoing guidance for the development of academic programmes to ensure that they remain responsive and relevant. The study, therefore, sought to investigate the role of quality reviews during the implementation of health sciences programmes at a rural University in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Methods: Data were collected using the document analysis review technique to assess the Self-Evaluation Review reports for three programmes in the faculty of health sciences. The study’s descriptive qualitative data were analysed using a thematic analysis approach in six stages. All-inclusive purposive sampling was used to select the documents for review. Results: Three health sciences programmes were reviewed; two of the programmes met the minimum standards whereas one needed improvement. The review showed inadequate staffing, poor student support, and inadequate marketing of the programmes among others. Conclusions: The study has shown that conducting a review is crucial for maintaining and enhancing quality provisioning of programmes. The quality gaps identified by the panellists while reviewing the programmes can be used to improve and enhance quality of the programmes to a higher level if properly implemented. Thus, quality review does play a significant role during the implementation of health sciences programmes.
Quality assurance in service organisations such as the universities is a vital component of the audit process. Therefore, this paper evaluates the quality assurance audit and corporate governance issues in higher degrees. The paper became necessary given rising concern over apparent external assurers’ subjectivity and domination of the higher degree assurance process. The paper inclined on three main objectives, namely to determine how external assurers’ objectivity relate with assurance outcome on higher degrees, to know how the clarity of institutional assurance rubric relate with external assurance outcome and to determine how supervisors’ neutrality relate with external audit assurance outcome on higher degrees. The paper adopted a mixed methodology of qualitative and quantitative approaches, which firstly reviewed the literature on the impugned issues in higher degree quality assurance and thereafter proceeded to use Chi-square statistics to conduct a quantitative analysis of questionnaire responses on higher degree assurance process. Findings suggest that existing quality assurance of higher degrees is asymmetrically inclined more on the external assurer, which thus dominate internal corporate governance process of quality assurance, leaving only a mere ratifying role to the institutional corporate governance process. The Chi-Square statistical finding on all the three objectives showed a P value less than the alpha of 0.05 (P<0.05), which indicates the following: external assurers’ objectivity relates with the assurance outcome; the clarity of institutional assurance rubric relates with the assurance outcome; similarly, anonymity of the supervisor does relate with the assurance outcome. The paper contributes to the literature by suggesting a framework to improve higher degree quality assurance-audit, which includes supervisor and institutional neutrality, a balance between external assurers’ decisions and internal governance control decisions.
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