Quality assurance in South Africa
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09684889910281557 |
| Date | 01 September 1999 |
| Published date | 01 September 1999 |
| Pages | 125-134 |
| Author | Chandru Kistan |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Quality assurance in
South Africa
Chandru Kistan
A striking global phenomenon is the changing
landscape of the higher education sector. The
expansion of higher education from elite to
mass to universal systems, new trends in
teaching and learning, the growth of alter-
native systems of education, changes in the
market place and new demands and needs of
society, are some of the consequences of this
global changing landscape. These challenges
and demands impinge more so on the tertiary
sector of education.
Government policies for quality assurance
systems in different forms and with different
names are functioning in several countries. At
the policy level, quality assurance is about
power and control of standards measured in
terms of accountability. At the institutional
level they are about student experience and
achievement. With the growth of higher
education, these micro-level (institutional)
processes have become more visible, more
important and more costly to societies. In a
variety of ways, the traditionally private lives
of higher education institutions are being
opened up to wider public scrutiny. And as a
consequence, governments are getting in-
creasingly explicit through policy about what
they want from higher education.
The higher education sector, partly funded
by government, is also expected to be
accountable and fulfil the changing needs of
society (fitness for purpose). The question of
accountability and ``fitness for purpose'' have
resulted in the introduction of quality and
quality assurance. Any consideration of qual-
ity, in a sense, must also appreciate that
contemporary debates around notions of
quality and standards in government funded
higher education are politically motivated for
reasons of accountability. Several govern-
ments which propagate easy access and
``education for all''have in many instances cut
back on financial and other resources to the
higher education sector. In reflecting on the
introduction of quality assurance:
... it is important to remember that it was
implemented in a period that saw rapid change
in the operating conditions of universities (Clark,
1997, p. 218).
The conceptualisation of quality ± a
South African perspective
``Quality'' has long been the touchstone in
education all over the world. There is general
The author
Chandru Kistan is Deputy Dean of the Faculty of
Education, University of Durban Westville, Durban,
South Africa.
Keywords
High education, Quality assurance, Policy, South Africa
Abstract
Worldwide, higher education is undergoing major
changes in its organisation. In this context, the concept of
quality assurance control has emerged as a primary
instrument for evaluating performance and accountability
in higher education systems. South Africa is the latest
candidate for a nationally imported system of quality
assurance in the wake of several policy and legal
initiatives to transform higher education after the demise
of apartheid. Several contemporary developments, nota-
bly the South African Higher Education Bill and the
Education White Paper 3 (Higher Education) are part of
the government's commitment to transform higher
education. This paper will briefly discuss the origins and
nature of quality assurance in South Africa. The article
also critically reviews a number of conceptual frameworks
about quality in higher education in order to develop a
better and shared understanding of, and appropriate
responses to quality assurance.
125
Quality Assurance in Education
Volume 7 .Number 3 .1999 .pp. 125±133
#MCB University Press .ISSN 0968-4883
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