Beyond the establishment of quality assurance agencies

A multitude of concerns that accompany the increasing expansion of higher education continue to speed up the establishment of quality assurance agencies (QAAs) in many parts of the world, especially since the 1980s. These undertakings have been widely hailed as a success in their own right – as if the act of establishment alone could offer forth the spell to solving problems in a given higher education set-up.

Calls for the establishment of QAAs and similar schemes continue unabated and while their presence provides a structural response aimed at addressing pertinent issues of quality, what is equally, if not more, important is the manner in which such agencies are organised and operate.

Among others, the mandates of QAAs over public and private institutions, the mechanisms they use to ensure quality, the role they assume in exercising a controlling or enhancing function, the ethical standards in place are all important caveats that need to be closely examined together with their specific operational features.

The public higher education sector in Ethiopia has existed for nearly seven decades and continues to muster huge dominance and impact. There are currently more than 40 public universities in Ethiopia.

According to recent figures from the Ministry of Education (2016-17), total enrolment in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes (government and non-government) has reached 860,378, of which the majority (85%) is in government institutions. While education receives 25% of the national budget, higher education takes the highest share of the budget (45.9%) next to general education at 47.3%.

Private higher education institutions (PHEIs) have been operating only since the end of the 1990s, and despite their sheer number, which is nearly 130, they remain limited in their enrolment size and influence. While public universities are fully financed by the government, the majority of PHEIs are self-financing and receive little or no direct help from the government.

HERQA – Mandates and tools

The Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency (HERQA) was established in 2003 in the wake of a public higher education system characterised by aggressive expansion and the mushrooming of newly established PHEIs that needed to be regulated.

The agency assumes a range of powers and duties relating to accreditation; evaluating the relevance and quality enhancement system of institutions; preparing requirements and directives for determining institutional status; advising the Ministry of Education in respect of merger, division, closure or change of name of institutions; ensuring the relevance and quality standards set at foreign institutions or their branches operating in Ethiopia; and disseminating the status and determining the equivalence of qualifications issued by foreign institutions.

Over the last 15 years the agency has been employing a variety of tools to expedite its mandates and responsibilities which include accreditation, surprise visits and quality audits. While the first two mechanisms are exclusively enforced on PHEIs, it is only the third scheme that is being used to influence quality of education within the public sector.

As set by Ethiopia’s Higher Education Proclamation (2009), accreditation requirements need to be met before institutions launch any academic programme. Requirements focus on checking institutional performance in areas such as facilities and resources, curricula, staff qualification, internal structures and systems, etc.

Overlooking public institutions

In spite of constituting a key element of quality assurance and the major task of the agency, accreditation does not apply to public institutions that accommodate 85% of higher education enrolment in the country.

This means public institutions can launch any programme of their choice (including masters and PhD) without requesting the permission of the agency. This has led to a situation where both undergraduate and graduate programmes are mushrooming within the public domain without necessarily fulfilling minimum national standards set.

Holding both private and public providers of higher education accountable through QA frameworks like accreditation is a policy track pursued by many governments, including those in Africa. Countries such as Egypt, Ghana, Uganda and Lesotho provide useful lessons to the current QA practice in Ethiopia, which remains an exception in this regard.

Another important tool that could have been profitably used is the quality audit exercise which now serves as a voluntary stand-alone quality enhancement tool.

The quality audit exercise is a relatively comprehensive undertaking that involves both public and private institutions and embodies process and output elements that are lacking in the input-based accreditation system. Its outcomes are communicated to institutions in the expectation that it will lead to the development of an enhancement plan that will then be used as part of future institutional undertakings.

As it stands now, the quality audit exercise does not have any link with accreditation. Nor does it involve mechanisms for enforcing suggested follow-up measures that need to be taken by institutions after the findings of quality audit are publicised.

In terms of consequences or actions that may come after the external audit, measures that are common in many other countries such as linking quality audit results with strategic plan agreements or funding, do not exist in the Ethiopian public system. Hence, despite the huge amount of resources deployed, the quality audit exercise can only be useful for institutions that have a high level of commitment, motivation and readiness to benefit from the process.

Need for change

While HERQA has put the right tools at its disposal, the manner in which these tools are being used exhibits deficiencies and anomalies, requiring further improvements and changes.

The need for the establishment of HERQA, the financial and human resources dedicated to it, and the specific demands of an infant public higher education system do not justify the overwhelming focus of the agency on accrediting private higher education institutions only; nor does the manner in which the outcomes of the quality audit exercise are solely left to the discretion of individual institutions.

Leaving the public sector unaccountable, and underutilising the benefits of the quality audit exercise will not only dent the images of HERQA but can have serious consequences in terms of the national quest for quality education.

The negative effect of these practices on institutions that produce graduates who are expected to have an impact on Ethiopia’s current and future development makes the call for change a matter of urgency. This demands overhauling the way in which HERQA’s tools are used and the immediate extension of its supervisory power over the public sector.

Wondwosen Tamrat is associate professor and founding president of St Mary’s University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His email addresses are: preswond@smuc.edu.et or wondwosentamrat@gmail.com.