Abstract:

The South African Council on Higher Education (CHE) uses four dimensions to define Quality Assurance (QA) in Higher Education (HE). Namely fitness of purpose; looking at the vision and mission of the institution, fitness for purpose; focusing on the relevance of the institution, value for money and transformation. The focus of this paper is on fitness for purpose. The concept emanates from the need for higher education institutions to offer qualifications that are fit for the intended objectives and prepare students for their future roles. The advent of fourth industrial revolution and artificial intelligence has presented the need for new directions in pedagogy and the need to ensure that educational offerings are current in relation to the industrial revolution and relevant to the social and economic trajectories. Sustainable learning and education phenomenon guides higher education institutions (HEI) to provide educational offerings that will instill skills that will transform education in a way that harnesses the rapidly and ever-changing technologies and contribute towards employment creation, particularly in the developing countries. This research uses a qualitative approach methodology to establish the readiness of a distance education institution in South Africa to harness opportunities presented by 4IR while responding to the skills of the future. The researcher uses the outcomes of the CHE Institutional Audit and institutional reports to assess the readiness of the institution to review its academic offerings as a critical area to enhance the readiness of its graduates for the world of work. The study found that there is a need for the university to review its offerings to infuse technology-related skills and expand its curriculum transformation agenda to go beyond decolonization. A framework for the assessment of curriculum relevance for the future world of work is proposed for the university and future research on the impact of current offerings on unemployment is recommended.

Keywords:

Higher education, quality audits, 4IR and education, sustainable learning and education, fitness for purpose, quality dimensions and artificial intelligence.