Quality Assurance in South African Higher Education: A new beginning
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Michael Smout; Sandra Stephenson
- Source
- Quality in Higher Education. 8:197-206
- Subject
- Economic growth
Higher education
business.industry
Educational quality
media_common.quotation_subject
Face (sociological concept)
Education
Statutory law
Political science
Agency (sociology)
Quality (business)
Democratization
business
Quality assurance
media_common
- Language
- ISSN
- 1470-1081
1353-8322
Far from being near its end, quality assurance in South African higher education is about to embark on a new beginning. A brief overview of approaches to quality assurance in South Africa up to 2000 is provided, with specific reference to the impact of the historical legacy of apartheid and the university-technikon divide. The new beginning relates to the establishment in 2001 of the country's first sector-wide external quality agency, the Higher Education Quality Committee. The challenges that face this statutory authority are critically examined.