Academic Standards and Quality Assurance: The Impact of COVID-19 on University Degree Programs

Abstract

COVID-19, caused by a member of the coronavirus family of viruses, has spread to most countries around the world since it was first recorded in humans in China in late 2019. Closing universities and cancelling all face-to-face activities have become a COVID-19 inevitable reality in many parts of the world. Its impact on university programs, particularly to maintain academic standards and quality assurance procedures, has become significantly more challenging and complex. New ways of working digitally, to minimize disruption to daily operations, have also led to enormous anxiety and uncertainty within the student population, and meeting students’ expectations has also become significantly more difficult. This paper reviews actions taken by universities to safeguard high academic standards and quality assurance procedures during this time and appraise the challenges and impacts on students’ academic performance.

COVID-19 and Higher Education: First-Year Students’ Expectations toward Distance Learning

“…Working remotely was also a challenge for the universities themselves to assure high academic standards of conducted classes as well as the integrity of the teaching process. To achieve this goal, universities needed to prevent and act against academic misconduct [29] and popularize good practice [30,31] in course delivery, students' assessment, and ensuring access to all necessary materials. A change that was reported by teachers in studies, which was correlated with the integrity of the teaching process, concerns, for example, adding new learning content to assigning tasks [32] as well as using "flipped classroom" as a teaching method [33].…”

Quality assurance policies and implementation in nursing and midwifery training colleges in Ghana

“…These findings reiterate the fact that proximity to regulatory bodies has a positive correlation with the availability and implementation of QA policy, Wa NTC being located in the regional capital with the highest proximity to regulatory bodies coupled with high numbers of staffing might be a motivation factor for its ability to implement its QA policies compared to Tumu NTC and Nandom MTC which are sited in the outermost boundaries of the region with inadequate staffing (p=0.02). This is supported by Seniwoliba and Yakubu [21]; Bank and Popoola [22], as well as Gamage, et al [6] as they also outlined that staffing and workplaces; physical and money related assets; responsibility and support for quality assurance regulatory bodies are some of the policy implementation challenges in higher education.…”

“…In ensuring quality, nursing, and midwifery academic establishments, nursing councils, and authoritative bodies can play a significant role in producing qualified graduates [3]. Educational establishments ought to build up their approaches and components to cling to government strategies, and effectively actualize quality assurance structures with ongoing inspection and evaluation [4]- [6]. The nursing and midwifery administrations must give criticism to instructive organizations to progress and work as a team with them to create the ideal nursing and midwifery workforce.…”

“…The implementation of QA policy by higher education institutions, specifically nursing and midwifery colleges (NMTCs), involves the provision of services that meet expectations of all key stakeholders, particularly the labor markets and the students who are direct beneficiaries [5], [8]. Tertiary institutions recognized by National Accreditation Board (NAB) of Ghana are required to set up internal quality assurance unit (IQAU) within a maximum of five years from the date of first accreditation [6], [7]. Per the NAB directive, the existence of useful IQAU could be a key marker in evaluating the execution of an institution towards organization re-accreditation and the grant of presidential approval.…”

“…Per the NAB directive, the existence of useful IQAU could be a key marker in evaluating the execution of an institution towards organization re-accreditation and the grant of presidential approval. This unit, like other quality assurance bodies globally, is expected to conduct occasional surveys to evaluate the degree to which objectives are met inside the system of the rules, and whether the strategies for instructional delivery and learning, the offices, and the budgetary and human resource for the conveyance of the educational program bolster the objectives [6].…”