UNESCO’s quality assurance project to benefit nine countries

The UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa (UNESCO ROSA) has started an initiative to strengthen quality assurance in higher education across countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The initiative falls under UNESCO’s Campus Africa project, a flagship education programme which aims to build integrated, inclusive and quality tertiary education systems and institutions for the development of inclusive and equitable societies on the continent.

In an interview with University World News, UNESCO ROSA Head of Education Dr Peter Wells said the quality assurance programme will be implemented in nine Southern African countries: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

“Zimbabwe and Southern Africa have remarkable seats of higher learning with a long history of excellence. This initiative only serves to highlight this and to support the continued pursuit of quality enhancement in the region and institutional cooperation across the continent and globally,” said Wells.

“The UNESCO Campus Africa project, under which this is conceived, will cement the underlying importance of higher education in realising the UN Agenda 2030 as well as the African Union’s 2063 vision.”

He said the initiative began with a pilot workshop conducted in Zimbabwe to facilitate the implementation of robust quality assurance practices at institutions of higher learning.

According to a UNESCO press release, the quality assurance workshops support the strengthening of both internal and external quality assurance practices at institutional level, while addressing emerging trends in higher education, including digital transformation.

The training programme covers key topics, including the foundations of quality assurance; national, regional and international quality assurance frameworks and standards; quality assurance in digital transformation; assessment methods and curriculum design; and the intersection of internationalisation and quality assurance.

Challenges and recommendations

“Despite the progress made in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), challenges including constrained institutional capacity and fragmented quality assurance practices across countries highlight the need for capacity-building efforts,” the statement said.

In an interview with University World News, Professor Kuzvinetsa Dzvimbo, CEO of the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZIMCHE) which played a key role in the pilot programme, said the council will work with UNESCO to cascade the quality assurance programme down to faculty and departmental levels in all Zimbabwean universities that will be grouped in clusters.

ZIMCHE has a mandate to regulate teaching standards, examinations, academic qualifications and research in higher education institutions in Zimbabwe.

Dzvimbo said ZIMCHE has mandated its Deputy CEO, Professor Wilson Parawira, to be the main contact person in the initiative.

According to a report compiled by UNESCO following the Zimbabwe pilot programme, those who participated in Harare came up with a number of recommendations to enhance quality assurance at institutions of higher learning. These include the need to leverage digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI) for quality assurance.

Institutions were urged to integrate digital tools into their quality assurance processes, and use AI and data to personalise teaching and learning. Comprehensive digitalisation policies were said to be necessary to guide the responsible use of these technologies.

Another recommendation was the implementation of robust assessment strategies and development of action plans to ensure that learning outcomes are aligned with quality assurance standards and institutional values and goals.

The pilot programme also recommended strengthening collaboration and capacity-building between institutions, government and industry.

“Institutions should enhance their internationalisation efforts by establishing strong partnerships with global institutions, promoting student and staff exchange programmes, and ensuring the quality of cross-border education to respond to global opportunities, challenges and needs,” reads part of the recommendations.

There was also a recommendation to develop regional and international networks for sharing best practice, organising workshops, and engaging in joint research to help institutions address capacity challenges and foster continuous improvement.

Institutions of higher learning were encouraged to collaborate with regional bodies to align quality assurance practice with global standards to enhance the recognition of qualifications and facilitate academic and professional mobility across regions.

The UNESCO report also said quality assurance in higher education is a critical component for maintaining academic standards, ensuring the credibility of qualifications, and promoting continuous improvement within institutions.

It said, in the context of the SADC, the need for robust quality assurance mechanisms has never been more pressing.

‘Significant strides’

“The HAQAA [Harmonisation of African Higher Education Quality Assurance and Accreditation] Initiative, along with the African Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ASG-QA), have made significant strides in aligning quality assurance practices across Africa. These frameworks aim to enhance educational quality but face challenges due to diverse educational contexts and varying levels of institutional capacity and readiness,” the report said.

“SADC countries have made notable progress in establishing quality assurance systems … However, they continue to encounter challenges such as resource constraints, infrastructure disparities, and inconsistencies in implementing standardised procedures.”

According to Wells, UNESCO has played a pivotal role in advancing quality assurance in African higher education systems through key tools such as the Addis Convention (the Revised Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Certificates, Diplomas, Degrees and Other Academic Qualifications in Higher Education in African States) and the Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education.

He said these frameworks facilitate academic mobility and promote the recognition of qualifications across borders.

Wells said UNESCO’s ecosystem for the recognition of qualifications includes five regional conventions, including the Addis and the Global conventions.

The Addis Convention was adopted in the Ethiopian capital in December 2014 and its benefits include improving employability of graduates, internationalisation of higher education programmes and boosting student and faculty mobility.

Wells said the conventions respect domestic laws and institutional autonomy and do not infer automatic recognition but rather give guidelines and specifics on how to recognise qualifications.

“As of October 2024, 14 African countries have ratified the Addis Convention,” he said.

Wells said the Global Convention aims to establish universal principles for qualification recognition, promote the recognition of qualifications for access to higher education, completed studies, and partial studies, even for refugees and displaced persons lacking documentation.

He said that, as of October 2024, 33 countries had ratified the Global Convention.

“Ratifying these conventions is of great importance as it allows countries to lead higher education development, promote student and academic mobility, and build forward-looking education systems. It strengthens regional and global cooperation, ensuring mutual recognition of qualifications and fostering a connected higher education landscape,” noted Wells.