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

Botha, Jan; Favish, Judy; Stephenson, Sandra

doi:10.1080/13538320802054524

Cited by 25 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Arguably, the lack of leadership commitment might be one of the reasons why the leadership did not assign a large number of staff to participate in the process as well as not focus on enhancing the coordination among the staff and units in implementing self-study. These findings confirmed the view that the success of EQA depends on the extent to which the key internal constituencies 'buy into' the processes and become committed to the outcomes of the processes (see Botha, 2008;Jones & Saram, 2005).…”

Section: Perceived Problems and Challenges Associated With Accreditationsupporting

confidence: 75%

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Institutional staff perceptions on the impact of accreditation: A study in two Vietnamese vocational training colleges

Pham¹

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<p>Governments in many countries worldwide have increasingly focused on accreditation as an important strategy to improve the quality of vocational education and training (VET). In Vietnam, accreditation in vocational training is still in its initial stage of development. The first cycle of accreditation at institutional level was conducted in 2008, and accreditation at programme level was piloted for the first time in 2012. The purpose of this mixed method study was to investigate the actual effects of institutional and programme accreditation from the perspectives of staff members in two Vietnamese vocational training colleges. Sixty staff members in these two institutions participated in the study. A questionnaire combining closed-ended and open-ended questions was administered to all participants. To obtain more in-depth responses about the impact of accreditation, individual interviews were conducted with eight participants. The findings suggest that the staff members overall had a positive perception towards the impact of accreditation regardless of the type of accreditation. The three main perceived benefits of accreditation included the increased awareness amongst staff of QA, its role as a catalyst for institutions’ change and enhancement, and the improvements in managerial practices. However, the study found support for the view that accreditation seemed to have been geared towards accountability rather than improvement. Many staff members observed that accreditation did not lead to a significant increase in teaching and learning quality or the institutions’ reputation. The effects of accreditation were also seen to be temporary rather than long-lasting. In conclusion, the study argues that though accreditation in vocational training in Vietnam has gained some preliminary success, there is still a mismatch between policy and reality. A number of important implications at both national and institutional levels for more effective accreditation are identified.</p>

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Section: Perceived Problems and Challenges Associated With Accreditationsupporting

confidence: 75%

“…Stensaker (2003) revealed criticisms of academics towards the rigidity of assessors that made them feel as though they were being inspected. More recently, Botha (2008) reported the doubts of institutional staff regarding the value of the QAA site visits.…”

Section: Perceived Problems and Challenges Associated With Accreditationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutional staff perceptions on the impact of accreditation: A study in two Vietnamese vocational training colleges

Pham¹

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“…This section is based on four main sources of evidence: (a) HEQCcommissioned research; (b) research conducted by institutional managers who were interested in the impact of audits in their own institutions (Botha et al, 2008) and research interest in the impact of audits more generally (Luckett, 2007;Quinn and Boughey, 2009); (c) investigations undertaken as part of the external evaluation of the HEQC; and (d) an analysis of selected improvement plans submitted to the HEQC by the audited institutions.…”

Section: External Institutional Audits: Outcomes and Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research conducted by senior staff responsible for quality assurance at three South African institutions that were audited between 2005 and 2006 shows that the HEQC audit reports kept a balance between recommendations on issues commonly found in other audit systems and recommendations that specifically referred to South Africa's concern with fitness of purpose and transformation in the post-apartheid dispensation, such as issues of equity and redress relating to students and staff (Botha et al, 2008). We have argued elsewhere that the complex conceptualisation of quality developed by the HEQC for the period in which it started its work meant that issues of transformation could not be separated from issues of quality (Lange and Singh, 2010;Singh, 2011b).…”

Section: Review Of the Approach To And Pace Of Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

External quality audits in South African higher education: goals, outcomes and challenges

Lange¹,

Singh²

2013

External Quality Audit

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“…In other institutions, quality departments are in the process of being established, as at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria (Müller et al 2012). However, there are still cases in which self-assessment is undertaken by ad-hoc committees, like at Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia (Adamu and Adamu, 2012) and at the University of Cape Town, Rhodes University, and Stellenbosch University in South Africa (Botha et al 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Main Features and Challenges of Implementing Internal Quality Assurance Within African Higher Education Institutions: The Case of Eduardo Mondlane University

Zavale¹,

Santos²,

Dias³

2016

IJAHE

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Founded in 1962, Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), Mozambique's largest and most prestigious university, established an Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) system for the first time in 2013. Based on UEM's case, this paper examines the features and challenges faced when implementing an IQA system within African higher education institutions. Literature on higher education quality assurance has widely examined the features of, and challenges faced by national QA systems, or by a QA system established across several higher education institutions (HEIs). However, this literature has rarely targeted single HEIs, particularly (African) HEIs that are establishing, for the first time, their IQA systems. Besides, even when IQA at a single HEI is targeted, this is often done by outsiders. Based on reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action, this paper addresses the perspectives of both insiders and outsiders. The authors analyse a system that they have been involved in establishing. The paper's findings enable to conclude that the main challenges of implementing an IQA system in an African HEI are associated with linking QA to decision-making and to a funding strategy; training human resources and allocating funds for the system to operate and to be sustainable; enabling the system to be assimilated by the university community; and defining measurable and objective quality standards to enable unbiased performance classification.103 quality issue as a key higher education (HE) steering policy. Since the 1980s, developed countries have established systematic quality policies. Several factors accounted for this policy shift, including (i) massification of HE; (ii) loss of confidence on the capacity of HE to maintain high standards and meet the demands of a competitive labour market; (iii) decline in government funding and increasing demand for accountability of HE; (iv) rapid growth of HE private sector and emergence of new public management; and (v) increasingly competitive HE system (Van Damme, 2002;Rosa and Amaral, 2007). In Africa, the quality issue as a key national HE steering policy is also a new phenomenon: the majority of quality assurance (QA) agencies were established after 1990s. By 2012, about 21 African countries had established QA agencies, and a dozen other countries were moving in this direction (Shabani et al.

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

Cited by 25 publications

References 8 publications

Institutional staff perceptions on the impact of accreditation: A study in two Vietnamese vocational training colleges

Institutional staff perceptions on the impact of accreditation: A study in two Vietnamese vocational training colleges

External quality audits in South African higher education: goals, outcomes and challenges

Main Features and Challenges of Implementing Internal Quality Assurance Within African Higher Education Institutions: The Case of Eduardo Mondlane University

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