Abstract:

Stakeholder participation is a key component to ensuring success during External Quality Assurance. This became evident when the University of South Africa underwent two external audit processes conducted by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and the Council on Higher Education (CHE), the regulatory authority for the higher education sector in South Africa. Evidence gathered during the two external institutional audits indicated a marked increase in the participation of internal stakeholders during the audit visits, which contrasted sharply with stakeholder participation in regular internal quality assurance processes conducted prior to the two external institutional audits. Both external audits employed a participatory approach to ensure stakeholder participation. Stakeholder participation, a component of the participatory approach, is enabled through stakeholder engagement and stakeholder buy-in. A cursory literary search revealed lack-of stakeholder buy-in as one of the causes for low stakeholder participation in internal quality assurance processes. Moreover, because most quality assurance processes include interdependencies in the form of internal stakeholders, a lack of stakeholder buy-in was recognised as one of the risks for likely non-achievement of stated annual quality assurance targets.

The purpose of this paper was to reflect on the participatory approach used during the two external quality assurance institutional audits by the COL and the CHE, as well as the lessons learned to improve stakeholder participation for Internal Quality Assurance (IQA). Furthermore, whether or not lack of stakeholder buy-in was a factor in stakeholder participation. The lens of reflection was the Gibbs Reflective Model. It is argued that if stakeholder involvement is done effectively and lessons learned are applied consistently, the potential for improving stakeholder participation throughout internal quality assurance process adoption will be increased. Literature on stakeholder engagement, stakeholder involvement and stakeholder participation, though limited within quality assurance, informed the reflections of the members of the planning teams involved in both external audit processes. Using the Gibbs Reflective Model, participants were able to identify essential elements of the participatory approach for improving stakeholder participation in internal quality assurance processes. A literature search yielded definitions for stakeholder engagement, stakeholder involvement, and participatory approach, which informed the writers' understanding of these terms as they were employed in the study. Making distinctions in the use of these concepts allowed the authors to appropriately assess and classify activities. Our findings indicate that, while there is potential to learn from the experiences of the two external institutional audit processes, a conceptual model for involving stakeholders is also essential.

Keywords:

Internal Quality Assurance, External Quality Assurance, Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Participation, Participatory Approach, Reflective Practice.