The effect of internal quality assurance reviews on departmental academic programmes at the University of KwaZulu-Natal

Abstract

The Quality Assurance System in the higher education sector in South Africa was designed and initiated in 1995. Over the past 20 years South African higher education institutions (HEIs) have been challenged by a diversity of new criteria, and in order to facilitate contemporary change, an analytical review of this antiquated system is warranted to overhaul the currently entrenched review system. In this review of the South African quality assurance system a brief historical context and an overview of QA systems in selected countries in the last twenty years are presented. Contemporary issues relevant to resistance, and regulatory and new paradigms in quality assurance, are discussed. Accordingly, this study offers a theoretical foundation on the issue of quality assurance in the global context, and adopts a historical thematic perspective with reference to developments in Quality Assurance Systems globally. The overarching research question which guided the study was: What are the effects of internal quality assurance reviews on the outcomes of selected academic programmes at the University of KwaZulu-Natal? The following programmes were purposefully sampled to participate in the research: the Accounting Programme in the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance; the Education Unit of the School of Management Sciences; the School of Mathematical Sciences; and the School of Pharmacy. Data collection was done in a twofold manner, namely by administering a specifically designed mixed method questionnaire to heads of departments and the head of one education unit, and by extracting data from the Higher Education Management Institution System (HEMIS) of the UKZN. The results indicate that the Accounting Programme, Management Studies Education unit and the Pharmacy programme have produced positive academic indicators of success in enrolments, graduation and pass rates after the review process. Only the Mathematics programme produced a negative student success trend after the review process. Based on the findings of the study, a conceptual quality assurance framework is proposed which incorporates emerging criteria influencing quality assurance.