An exploration into the conditions enabling and constraining the implementation of quality assurance in higher education: the case of a small comprehensive university in South Africa
- Authors: Masehela, Langutani Meriam
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: University of Venda -- Evaluation , Education, Higher -- South Africa -- Evaluation , Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Auditing , Quality assurance -- South Africa , Quality assurance -- Standards -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Evaluation , Educational accountability -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Standards -- South Africa , Educational evaluation -- South Africa , Critical realism , Social realism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1334 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020312
- Description: At an international level, demands for accountability in respect of the quality of teaching and learning in higher education are increasing. This is also the case in South Africa. The response to these demands has taken the form of the introduction of quality assurance systems to higher education. In South Africa, a formal national external quality assurance was introduced to the higher education system in 2001 as a result of the establishment of the Higher Education Quality Committee. The Higher Education Quality Committee is a standing committee of the South African Council on Higher Education. Like other quality assurance agencies across the world, the Higher Education Quality Committee has the responsibility for i) auditing institutions of higher education and ii) accrediting learning programmes. The first cycle of institutional audits ran from 2004 until 2011. As quality assurance was introduced to the higher education system and the first cycle of institutional audits began, universities in South Africa developed policies and procedures intended to assure quality in three areas of their core functioning: research, teaching and learning and community engagement. The University of Venda, which is the focus of the study on which this thesis is based, was no exception. As a practitioner in the Centre for Higher Education Teaching and Learning at The University of Venda, it was my observation that the policies and procedures intended to assure quality in teaching and learning were not always implemented by academic staff members. This was in spite of poor student performance data which raised questions about the quality of the teaching and learning processes in place. The study underpinning this thesis was designed to explore this phenomenon. More specifically, it aimed to identify the conditions enabling and constraining the implementation of policies and procedures in two Schools in the University: the School of Health Sciences and the School of Human and Social Sciences. In order to explore these conditions, I adopted Roy Bhaskar’s Critical Realism as an under-labouring philosophy for the study. Critical realism posits a view of reality comprising three strata, none of which can be reducible to the other. The first of these strata is termed the level of the Empirical and consists of the experiences and observations which become apparent to us through the senses. The second layer, the Actual, consists of events from which these experiences and observations emerge. Underpinning both of these layers is a further layer, the Real, which is not accessible by empirical means and which consists of structures and mechanisms which generate both events at the level of the Actual and experiences and observation at the level of the Empirical. The design of my study sought to reach this deepest layer of reality to identify these mechanisms. Bhaskar’s critical realism is philosophy which needs to be operationalized using substantive, or explanatory, theory. For this purpose, I drew on Margaret Archer’s social realism. The design on my study drew on case study methodology and involved in-depth interviews with members of the two Schools which each formed cases within the more overarching case of the University itself. In addition to these interviews, I analysed a range of institutional documents related to the assurance of quality in teaching and learning. The exploration of enabling and constraining conditions at the level of the Real allow me to make a series of recommendations in the final Chapter of my thesis intended to enhance the quality assurance system introduced to the University.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Masehela, Langutani Meriam
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: University of Venda -- Evaluation , Education, Higher -- South Africa -- Evaluation , Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Auditing , Quality assurance -- South Africa , Quality assurance -- Standards -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Evaluation , Educational accountability -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Standards -- South Africa , Educational evaluation -- South Africa , Critical realism , Social realism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1334 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020312
- Description: At an international level, demands for accountability in respect of the quality of teaching and learning in higher education are increasing. This is also the case in South Africa. The response to these demands has taken the form of the introduction of quality assurance systems to higher education. In South Africa, a formal national external quality assurance was introduced to the higher education system in 2001 as a result of the establishment of the Higher Education Quality Committee. The Higher Education Quality Committee is a standing committee of the South African Council on Higher Education. Like other quality assurance agencies across the world, the Higher Education Quality Committee has the responsibility for i) auditing institutions of higher education and ii) accrediting learning programmes. The first cycle of institutional audits ran from 2004 until 2011. As quality assurance was introduced to the higher education system and the first cycle of institutional audits began, universities in South Africa developed policies and procedures intended to assure quality in three areas of their core functioning: research, teaching and learning and community engagement. The University of Venda, which is the focus of the study on which this thesis is based, was no exception. As a practitioner in the Centre for Higher Education Teaching and Learning at The University of Venda, it was my observation that the policies and procedures intended to assure quality in teaching and learning were not always implemented by academic staff members. This was in spite of poor student performance data which raised questions about the quality of the teaching and learning processes in place. The study underpinning this thesis was designed to explore this phenomenon. More specifically, it aimed to identify the conditions enabling and constraining the implementation of policies and procedures in two Schools in the University: the School of Health Sciences and the School of Human and Social Sciences. In order to explore these conditions, I adopted Roy Bhaskar’s Critical Realism as an under-labouring philosophy for the study. Critical realism posits a view of reality comprising three strata, none of which can be reducible to the other. The first of these strata is termed the level of the Empirical and consists of the experiences and observations which become apparent to us through the senses. The second layer, the Actual, consists of events from which these experiences and observations emerge. Underpinning both of these layers is a further layer, the Real, which is not accessible by empirical means and which consists of structures and mechanisms which generate both events at the level of the Actual and experiences and observation at the level of the Empirical. The design of my study sought to reach this deepest layer of reality to identify these mechanisms. Bhaskar’s critical realism is philosophy which needs to be operationalized using substantive, or explanatory, theory. For this purpose, I drew on Margaret Archer’s social realism. The design on my study drew on case study methodology and involved in-depth interviews with members of the two Schools which each formed cases within the more overarching case of the University itself. In addition to these interviews, I analysed a range of institutional documents related to the assurance of quality in teaching and learning. The exploration of enabling and constraining conditions at the level of the Real allow me to make a series of recommendations in the final Chapter of my thesis intended to enhance the quality assurance system introduced to the University.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Research supervision experiences of masters in education students at a South African University
- Authors: Ganqa, Ncumisa Hazel
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Evaluation , Graduate students -- Research -- South Africa , Education -- South Africa -- Quality control
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , M Ed
- Identifier: vital:16176 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/473 , Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Evaluation , Graduate students -- Research -- South Africa , Education -- South Africa -- Quality control
- Description: In recent years, transformation in South African Universities saw an increase in the number of postgraduate students enrolling for Masters’ research programmes as access and educational opportunities have been widened. The purpose of this research was to investigate research supervision experiences of Masters postgraduate students. A qualitative, contextual, descriptive and phenomenological research design was used to explore the experiences of the 2010 MEd cohort at a purposively chosen university. This was a small scale study of six participants in different stages of their research projects sampled purposively. The preferred phenomenological interview method of gathering information from the subjects was in-depth unstructured interviews. This research study revealed that the postgraduate students at the University under investigation still continue to experience the traditional model of a single supervisor supervising a strictly research based work. The most crucial component of research supervision experiences that emerged was the quality of supervision between supervisors and supervisees which revealed power struggles in supervisory relationships. Such relationships emerged as push and pull, fight or flight amongst different individual participants and their supervisors.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Ganqa, Ncumisa Hazel
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Evaluation , Graduate students -- Research -- South Africa , Education -- South Africa -- Quality control
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , M Ed
- Identifier: vital:16176 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/473 , Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Evaluation , Graduate students -- Research -- South Africa , Education -- South Africa -- Quality control
- Description: In recent years, transformation in South African Universities saw an increase in the number of postgraduate students enrolling for Masters’ research programmes as access and educational opportunities have been widened. The purpose of this research was to investigate research supervision experiences of Masters postgraduate students. A qualitative, contextual, descriptive and phenomenological research design was used to explore the experiences of the 2010 MEd cohort at a purposively chosen university. This was a small scale study of six participants in different stages of their research projects sampled purposively. The preferred phenomenological interview method of gathering information from the subjects was in-depth unstructured interviews. This research study revealed that the postgraduate students at the University under investigation still continue to experience the traditional model of a single supervisor supervising a strictly research based work. The most crucial component of research supervision experiences that emerged was the quality of supervision between supervisors and supervisees which revealed power struggles in supervisory relationships. Such relationships emerged as push and pull, fight or flight amongst different individual participants and their supervisors.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
The development of a financial performance measurement framework for South African education institutions
- Authors: Leo, Terrance
- Date: 2003
- Subjects: Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Finance , Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Evaluation , Performance -- Measurement
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:10903 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/217 , Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Finance , Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Evaluation , Performance -- Measurement
- Description: Limited research has been conducted on financial performance indicators in South Africa. In European countries, Australia and the United States of America, literature has shown that there has been extensive research and implementation of performance indicators, to measure the achievements of objectives. A literature study was conducted for this research on the usage of PI’s, with a view to pinpointing the financial indicators. The literature study was used to develop a questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed to universities and Technikons in South Africa, to obtain a measure of relevance and agreement on the performance indicators. The findings of the questionnaire culminated in a model that only consists of those indicators with a high level of concurrence among respondents. Performance indicators can serve as a management tool to measure performance and as a means to enhance transparency and accountability.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2003
- Authors: Leo, Terrance
- Date: 2003
- Subjects: Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Finance , Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Evaluation , Performance -- Measurement
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:10903 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/217 , Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Finance , Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Evaluation , Performance -- Measurement
- Description: Limited research has been conducted on financial performance indicators in South Africa. In European countries, Australia and the United States of America, literature has shown that there has been extensive research and implementation of performance indicators, to measure the achievements of objectives. A literature study was conducted for this research on the usage of PI’s, with a view to pinpointing the financial indicators. The literature study was used to develop a questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed to universities and Technikons in South Africa, to obtain a measure of relevance and agreement on the performance indicators. The findings of the questionnaire culminated in a model that only consists of those indicators with a high level of concurrence among respondents. Performance indicators can serve as a management tool to measure performance and as a means to enhance transparency and accountability.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2003
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