AAU workshop builds HE quality assurance capacity

Higher education institutions across Africa must improve their quality assurance efforts in order to produce graduates that are fit for work instead of turning out graduates who cannot be employed because they lack the requisite skills, Secretary-General of the Association of African Universities, or AAU, Professor Etienne Ehile, said.

In a speech read on his behalf to open a four-day workshop held in Kumasi, Ghana from 31 October to 3 November on “Revitalising the 21st Century Higher Education Quality Assurance Systems, Tools, Processes and Procedures”, he said: “Many African tertiary institutions produce half-baked graduates that are not fit for the world of work mainly because of the way they are taught and the absence of curricula reviews [of courses] that should respond to the calls of industry’s contemporary needs.”

The workshop, facilitated by the AAU, sought to promote the quality of higher education in Africa by improving quality assurance systems in universities and was aimed at quality assurance personnel including deans of faculties and directors of support services.

Ehile said a country’s global competitiveness relies on the effectiveness of its institutions in preparing prospective graduates for industry and the world of work, adding that, “no nation can sustainably progress without a contribution from its higher education sector which provides research, knowledge and skills that are needed to sustain socio-economic development in a country and the African continent at large.”

The role of quality assurance, he said, is critical because “as the poorest continent, Africa needs to revive its higher education systems to produce home-grown solutions to overcome its myriad development challenges”.

Ehile said the subject of quality in higher education is very close to the heart of the AAU which currently has a membership of over 380 higher education institutions, spread across all five regions of the continent.

He said the AAU has made the provision of quality assurance knowledge and skills its top priority in order to equip all quality assurance personnel in Africa with knowledge of modern trends.

He said the Kumasi workshop was important because it added value to the quality of tuition in the institutions from which the participants were drawn.

“This is also in line with the goals of the African Higher Education’s Pan-African Quality Assurance and Accreditation Framework or PAQAF, which is being spearheaded by the African Union Commission whose implementing arm is the Association of African Universities," Ehile said.

The workshop also creates a platform to deliberate on the upcoming African Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance, or ASG-QA, as well as the African Quality Rating Mechanism institutional evaluation tool. Both are part of the Pan-African Quality Assurance Framework, he said.

Stating that most of those attending the workshop were working tirelessly towards training Africa’s ever-growing youth bulge, he said the AAU was prepared to welcome new members, adding that the AAU wants to work closely with all concerned to make a lasting impact on the African higher education scene.

Ehile was optimistic that the strong relationship between the AAU and higher education institutions will continue to grow even stronger. “Our mission is to raise the quality of higher education in Africa and strengthen its contribution to Africa’s development by fostering collaboration among our members,” he said.

In addition, the AAU wants to provide support to its member universities’ core functions of teaching, learning, research and community engagement, as well as facilitating critical reflection on, and consensus building around, issues affecting higher education, he said.

“Today’s higher education institutions are being challenged by high competition for students due to globalisation and cross-border provision of higher education, privatisation of higher education, high unemployment rates and demand for accountability from stakeholders,” he said.

These issues are driving institutions of higher learning across the world, and Africa in particular to have systems and procedures in place to ensure quality education.