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This paper analyses the take-up of proposals for a national quality assurance system in South Africa using different approaches to quality assurance to classify stakeholder responses to survey and interview questions. The context of the study was the introduction of an external quality assurance system for South African higher education by an agency of the Department of Education, the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) in 2004. A conceptual framework using Habermas's distinctions between system and strategic action on the one hand and lifeworld and communicative action on the other was set up to map different approaches to quality assurance and to analyse the data. Stakeholder opinion on the HEQC's proposals for institutional audit and programme accreditation was gathered using survey questionnaire and depth-interview instruments. Given that quality assurance in South Africa has been conceived as a means of furthering the state's 'transformation agenda' for higher education, different and sometimes conflicting approaches to quality assurance exist in the higher education community - underpinned by different values, discourses and purposes for higher education. The study shows that these differences of opinion were shaped more strongly by the respondents' position in the social structure (apartheid defined class and race position) than by their social role (academic, manager, quality assurance manager) in the policy-making process. The paper concludes by suggesting that this finding may be explained if one understands the adoption and intended implementation of quality assurance policy to be a lifeworld matter. The contribution of Habermas' notions of lifeworld and system to conceptualising and understanding quality assurance systems is put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa has embarked on a process of education renewal by adopting outcomes‐based education (OBE). This paper focuses on the linkages between total quality management (TQM) and the outcomes‐based approach in an education context. Quality assurance in academic programmes in higher education in South Africa is, in some instances, based on the TQM model because of a strong focus on the employers of graduates. The development of performance standards and the identification of outcomes are highly relevant to quality management in educational systems. This is directly applicable to OBE, therefore, the purpose of this paper is to illustrate the linkages between TQM and OBE in an educational environment. The challenge is to successfully align TQM principles with OBE principles so that quality in higher education provisioning could be assured. This comparison will illustrate that the implementation of OBE in an academic environment does contribute to quality improvement. The future of an economic system is directly tied to the ability of a nation to establish and maintain a high quality higher education system with a strong focus on quality teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper speculates on the possible contribution of the quality movement to higher education and the perceived dividends received from this, in general, over the past two decades but also, more specifically, with reference to the author's institution in South Africa. The first major quality contribution is a gradual broadening of higher education custodianship, ensuring that academic provision more closely resembles societal expectations. It is hoped that the dividend stemming from this will be renewed public trust in higher education. The quality movement put public scholarship globally into action via its tested strategies of self-reflection, interrogation, assessment and, especially, via the airing, sharing and exchange of research findings and practices that work. This scholarship, which increasingly contributes to the integration of various higher education subsystems and which is also respectful of contextual difference and institutional identity, is perhaps the quality revolution's most extraordinary contribution and dividend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts a brief meta-reflection on quality assurance policy and practice in South African higher education, with a focus on methodology. More specifically it seeks to answer the question 'What are the effects of the Higher Education Quality Committee's (HEQC) quality assurance technologies on institutional practice and how could they be more effective in achieving its mandate?' This question is pursued with regard to the failure of the quality assurance system to impact significantly on the graduation rates of African South African students, despite the South African government's (and thus the HEQC's) explicit 'transformation agenda' for higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1994, the South African higher education system, fragmented and divided along racial lines during the years of apartheid, has been subject to a wide range of initiatives directed at bringing about the 'transformation' necessary for a more equitable dispensation and, ultimately, a new social order. One of the 'levers' being used in transformation processes is quality assurance. The paper uses a case study of an institutional audit at one historically white, elite South African university to provide a social realist account of an audit process and to analyse the likelihood of the audit contributing to institutional transformation. A conclusion is that the South African audit methodology per se is unlikely to bring about the change necessary because of its tendency to focus on the mechanistic implementation of recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African Council on Higher Education (CHE) has developed a model to regulate the provision of postgraduate qualifications. This model was applied in the first instance to the MBA. Accreditation was withdrawn from 15 MBAs, 15 were granted conditional accreditation, and seven were fully accredited. This paper takes forward an earlier evaluation and argues that the CHE did not observe the internationally recognized principles and processes of efficient regulation. Its regulation of MBAs is a paradigm case of failure in public policy construction and implementation. The consequences may extend beyond those immediately affected by the CHE’s decisions to impact adversely on South Africa’s regulatory reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African Council on Higher Education (CHE) withdrew its accreditation of 15 Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees in May 2004. MBAs for which accreditation was withdrawn include those offered in South Africa by Bond University (Australia) and De Montfort University (UK). CHE’s decisions have significant implications for students, graduates, the labour market, the international credibility of national higher education quality assurance systems and for international trade in higher education. CHE regulates ‘fitness of purpose’ by specifying major dimensions of the MBA programme mission, as well as regulating important aspects of teaching and learning, provider governance structures and procedures, employment matters and research. The particular research method, for example, to be used by universities in MBA programmes is prescribed by CHE. In general CHE closely regulates various decisions historically made by universities. The CHE model embraces aspects of MBA provision but it does not require an independent, scientific analysis of the efficacy of the assessments of student skills, knowledge and reasoning ability that are conducted by providers. Neither is it concerned with conceptualising or measuring labour market judgements of MBA quality. This paper argues that these are significant deficiencies and that potential students and other stakeholders in South African MBA programmes will thus be seriously misled if they rely on the results of the CHE MBA review to make MBA programme choices, employment, recruitment, remuneration and promotion decisions or to formulate public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides perspectives on the unique challenges and opportunities facing the national auditing and accreditation system in South African higher education. In doing so, the quality assurance contexts of developed countries, Africa and South Africa are considered and the issues of uncertainty and conformity are highlighted. This is followed by a more in-depth analysis of the policy developments, mandates and functions of the South African higher education quality assurance system, its impact, the challenges it is facing, and debates about future directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the development of quality assurance in technikons, and identifies some of the tensions between institutional quality assurance approaches and the approach of the external accreditation body. The account is given against a background of a higher education sector formerly characterised by a distinctive differentiation between technikons and universities, which have followed significantly different quality assurance roads. The development of a unifying qualifications framework in South Africa has drawn all higher education institutions together in a single band, with one body responsible for quality assurance of all these institutions. The experience of technikons regarding quality assurance has lessons for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]