Abstract:

Quality Evaluation Instruments (QEIs) are there to assess quality against predefined codes of practice and standards that are built on quality management (QM) principles. The UQEI was developed and implemented in 2011 as pilot project, with the institution-wide implementation in 2013. Ten years thereafter, the University decided to review the instrument and an external panel of experts in planning and quality assurance was appointed for this task. The university sought external review to ascertain if the instrument is achieving on its intended purpose. Furthermore, to evaluate the alignment of the UQEI with regard to the Council on Higher Education (CHE) quality criteria for accreditation, audits and reviews, and its suitability for assuring institutional arrangements for academic and support to assure the quality of the student learning experience. The external review was conducted as a desktop review of the UQEI coupled with a virtual site visit to allow for engagements on the instrument and for the panel interview key stakeholders to gain more insight its implementation. The review methodology was guided by the criteria of inclusiveness, coherence, effectiveness, accountability and innovation. There were identified areas for focused attention which included having a QEI that is responsive to the context of the university and takes into consideration the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. The University was requested to fast track implementation of the online facets of the business model, the need to focus more on streamlining the instrument to focus on managing quality within the professional and support university environment. The revisions in the UQEI had to be congruent with the changing higher education regulatory environment in South Africa and universal practices globally. In South Africa, the Council on Higher Education’s (CHE) has a new Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) promulgated in 2021, which currently guides provisioning of quality programmes in a COVID-19 context and within the post-COVID-19 higher education context.

Keywords:

Quality evaluation instrument, higher education, quality assurance, distance education.