THE HEQC ACCREDITATION SYSTEM

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THE HEQCACCREDITATION SYSTEM

• CBE SYMPOSIUM
• GALLAGHER ESTATE, MIDRAND
• 14 MAY 2008

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Overview of Presentation

• Mandate of the CHE.
• Mandate of the HEQC.
• The HEQC Definition of Quality.
• The Politics of Quality QA.
• The Accreditation System.
• The National Reviews System.
• Criteria for programme accreditation.
• Challenges of QA in a SA Context.

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CHE Mandate

• Advise the Minister at his/her request or
  proactively on all matters related to HE.
• Monitor and evaluate whether the policies, goals
  and objectives for HE transformation are being
  realised.
• Report to parliament on HE.
• Consult with stakeholders on HE matters.
• Assume executive responsibility for QA in HE.

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CHE Responsibilities
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The Higher Education Quality Committee (est.
2001)

• The HEQC is a permanent committee of the CHE
  tasked to
• Audit the QA mechanisms of HEIs.
• Accredit programmes of HE.
• Promote QA in HE.
• To these, the HEQC added quality-related capacity
  development.

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Council on Higher Education
A d v i c e
HEQC
Institutional Audits
Programme Accreditation
Quality Promotion and Capacity Development
National Reviews
Monitoring and Evaluation
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HEQC Definition of Quality

• Fitness of purpose
• Q within the context of national goals for the HE
  system, including equity, access, effectiveness
  and efficiency.
• Fitness for purpose
• Q in relation to the specified institutional
  mission.
• Value for money
• Q judged in relation to the purposes set out in
  the WP.
• Transformation
• Q that develops the individual for personal
  enrichment, as well as the requirements for
  social development and economic and employment
  growth, educational and social effectiveness.

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The politics of Quality Assurance

• Quality is a highly contested terrain and there
  are competing voices and discourses within the
  academic community, some seeing it infringing on
  their institutional autonomy and academic
  freedom.
• Quality becomes pre-occupied with accountability.
  This determines how quality leaders are perceived
  by academics.
• There is no blueprint for a quality system in HE.
  
• Assess the regulatory requirements as well as
  the current and emerging climate within the
  institution.
• Quality managers should be equipped with
  leadership skills to explain and manage change.

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Rationale for Programme Accreditation

• Protection of students against poor quality
  programmes.
• Maintaining the credibility of qualifications.
• Building capacity in developing new programmes,
  particularly at historically disadvantaged
  institutions and new institutions.
• Accountability, but various opportunities exist
  for improvement and development, for example, in
  the mid-term evaluation.

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Principles of the HEQC programme accreditation
model

• Academic programmes should be of acceptable
  quality.
• Primary responsibility for quality rests with
  HEIs.
• The HEQCs responsibility is to establish a
  value-adding external system of programme
  accreditation that validates institutional
  information on the effectiveness of quality
  arrangements.
• A system of peer and expert review is used by the
  HEQC to ensure credible and consistent programme
  evaluations.

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National Reviews

• Re-accreditation of existing programmes in a
  specific discipline area.
• Conducted within the context of the general HEQC
  accreditation criteria, but also include criteria
  specific to the programmes/disciplinary area.
• Take into account providers stakeholders
  concerns and interests in the training of
  students or professionals in a particular area,
  including the articulation between the programme
  and the skills required from graduates in a work
  situation.

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Factors influencing choice of programme/discipline

• Programmes with a high impact on society/the
  economy.
• Programmes with high student enrolments.
• Proliferation of offerings and a need to restore
  the credibility of qualifications and protect
  students against poor quality programmes.
• Programmes which have been identified in the
  NPHE as needing evaluation, e.g. postgraduate
  programmes.

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Criteria for programme accreditation Input
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Criteria for programme process
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Criteria for programme output and impact
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Criterion for programme review
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Challenges of QA in a SA Context

• STUDENT ENROLMENTS AND EQUITY
• The progress of women and African students masks
  inequalities in their distribution across
  academic programmes and especially at
  post-graduate training.
• STAFF EQUITY
• Academic and admin. staff overall, at senior
  levels and esp. at the historically white
  institutions remain overwhelmingly white and
  male.
• Creating opportunities for black and women
  students to undertake certain professional,
  masters, doctoral and post-doctoral studies
  through adequate scholarships, effective
  mentoring and appropriate induction and support
  remains a critical challenge.

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Challenges II

• 3. STUDENT GRADUATION AND SUCCESS
• Improvement of the overall HE efficiency i.t.o.
  reducing drop-out rates and enhancing throughput
  rates.
• Extent to which cultures and conditions exist to
  facilitate students becoming highly educated, and
  to graduating with knowledge, competencies and
  skills, and with attitudes appropriate to
  functioning as socially committed and critical
  citizens.
• QUALITY AS A KEY POLICY DRIVER
• Quality of academic programmes/institutions is
  crucial.
• Justification of poor quality programmes i.t.o.
  of under-prepared learners and/or in terms of
  providing access to HD social groups is a cynical
  notion of equity and confuses certification with
  meaningful education. Increased participation,
  equity and redress must result in the quality of
  provision, qualifications and graduates.

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Challenges III

• LEARNING, TEACHING RESEARCH
• Innovation, renewal and transformation in core
  activities of teaching, learning and of the
  curriculum, in research and the production of
  knowledge, and in community engagement, are
  sometimes neglected in the institutional
  transformation agenda.
• Curriculum, teaching learning are key
  determinants of the integrity of institutions,
  the value of their contribution to the social
  transformation agenda, and to economic and social
  development.

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Challenges IV

• MERGERS
• Huge difference between declaring merged
  institutions and actually creating ones that
  indeed
• Serve new social and educational purposes, goals
  and priorities.
• Develop new institutional identities and
  cultures.
• Develop new academic qualification and programme
  mixes of high quality academic and research
  programmes, and
• Forge new governance and new organisational
  structures, forms and practices.
• Whether mergers create HEIs that are more
  equitable, more responsive to new economic and
  social imperatives, more effective and efficient,
  of higher quality, and better governed remains to
  be seen.

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Challenges VII

• Does QA produce quality?
• Is the HEQC QA system an overkill?
• Is the HEQC accreditation system encouraging a
  culture of compliance with minimum standards and
  stifling innovation?
• How do you do QA in a context where HE is
  undergoing major restructuring?
• How do you do QA in a context where there are
  constant changes in the policy and legislative
  landscape (cf. NQF Bill, HE Act, etc)?
• How to forge partnerships with the 30 ETQAs and
  40 professional councils and institutes some of
  whom have QA responsibility in HE.

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THANK YOUTheo BhenguDeputy Executive
Director HEQCemail bhengu.t_at_che.ac.za
Visit our website www.che.ac.za