EVALUATION AND ACCREDITATION AS TOOLS FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION.

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EVALUATION AND ACCREDITATION AS TOOLS FOR QUALITY
ASSURANCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION.

• ONYANGO MARIA
• MASENO UNIVERSITY
• AT 1st REAL UNISTAFF CONFERENCE AND WORKSHOP
• KENYATTA UNIVERSITY
• 7th NOVEMBER ,2006

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1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION

• The Inter-University Council of Eastern Africa
  (IUCEA) established in 1963 is working with
  international partners like DAAD to put in place
  a unified regional human resource processing
  system through the following approaches
• Facilitation of harmonization of entry standards
  in partnership with partner states Accreditation
  Councils, Examination Boards and Relevant
  University Bodies.
• Development in partnership with national Higher
  Education Commissions and Accreditation Councils
  assessing standards and assuring quality of
  teaching and research in E. A.
• Advisory on quality assurance mechanisms ,
  through ways of self evaluation and comparability
  of degrees.
• Promotion, modernization and harmonization of
  university curricula in East Africa in
  conjunction with international partners

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CHALLENGES TO HIGHER EDUCATION QUALITY MEASURES

• Huge class enrolments in the respective public
  universities
• Autonomy of quality assurance and evaluation
  measures of students work.
• Lack of benchmarked modes of teaching and testing
  
• Rapid evolution in communication technologies
  giving birth to on-line degree programs and
  emergence of new private universities some of
  which offer more pro-market foreign courses and
  charge premium fees.
• Flowed expansion of tertiary education limited
  students exposure to practical skills reducing
  their degrees awarded to mere paper
  qualification.
• Difficulties related to effective evaluation of
  campus based programs as result huge enrolments.
• Some subject specialists among university
  academic staff have no education communication
  orientation.
• Administrative structures in regional
  universities embrace autonomy value-adding
  strategies.
• Duplication of functions of middle level
  technological institutions by universities
  resulting in technological innovation gaps.
• Difficulty in finding an all-round chair of
  department/faulty with competency for effective
  monitoring of all programs offered under them.

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BASIS FOR POSITIVE HOPE

• International partners like DAAD and IUCEA are
  focusing on universal goals through a variety of
  instruments.
• DAAD as a quality assurances partner to the
  region confirmed its commitment when they
  formally establishment their regional office in
  Nairobi in 1973.
• Unified Accreditation and Evaluation mechanisms
  in Higher Education in the region could be one of
  the most effective tools for internationalization
  for HRD.
• The common challenges of resource scarcity in
  the Eastern African regional states should
  motivate closer cooperation and collaboration to
  achieve better specialization and optimization of
  available resources for quality assurance.
• All the eastern African universities are
  processing human resource for a common global
  market that judge quality standards universally.
• There is potential good will and good intent for
  the regional education quality assurance as a
  strategy for capacitating the region to design
  its own destiny in a sustainable manner.

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PROBLEM

• Could University Accreditation Councils and
  Examination bodies formulate strategies that are
  mainstreamed in regional institutions as measures
  of quality assurance.
• Is there more that IUCEA and collaborative
  partners could do to enforce the application of
  the formulated tools for sustainable regional
  quality assurance for competitive regional
  synergy.
• What is the effect of proliferation of new
  universities against quality assurance gaps in
  public universities with their inadequate
  infrastructure and equipment.
• Focusing on the case of Kenyan universities, can
  the existing students lecturer ratios allow time
  for research and teaching that are core functions
  of academic career.
• Is the region in apposition to develop
  infrastructure that could ease transferability
  from one regional university to another

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METHODOLOGY

• Information reported in this paper was gathered
  through a combination of interactive approaches
  with a focus on Kenya Higher Education
  Institutions (universities as representative of
  regional institutions).
• Secondary information was obtained from relevant
  literature
• Primary information explored sentiments,
  insights and views of staff, students and other
  stakeholders.

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FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

• TOOLS OF ASSESSMENTS IN THE E. A. UNIVERSITIES
• Found that most of the regional universities use
  reviewing as a tool for assessing progress,
  strengths and weaknesses of organizational
  structures and operations (Owako, 2000).
• Observed that reviews can be subjective and hence
  if used. IUCEA and partners should work together
  with regional universities to establish external
  review committee that apply the tool objectively.
• The feedback of such review committees should be
  formative rather than punitive to enhance
  interpersonal staff development.
• Comparable and transferable students credits
  schemes if established among the regional
  universities would add value to education.
• The contents diversity as a result university
  autonomy even for same degree program within a
  nation was found to cause different value
  judgments in the eyes of consumers.
• A comparative perusal of course contents for the
  award of the degree of Bachelor of Education in
  Moi, Maseno and Kenytatta revealed that there
  were outstanding content differences that could
  incline customer choices.

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FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS CONT.

• Heavy workloads given to public universities
  staff translate into limited research work done
  by them.
• Mandatory research for award of degrees was not
  adding value to quality and it was recommended
  that research findings that are consistent with
  quality assurance goals should be disseminated
  and applied for purposes of learning by scholars
  for improvement of quality standards.
• Administrative structures emphasize teaching
  load, over specialization thus compromising
  standards by those staff with limited knowledge
  in respective subject areas . Team teaching and
  benchmarking were recommended a potential
  positive interventions for improved quality
  standards.
• Students lecturers assessment used in some
  universities with a questionnaire added no value
  since students were not inducted on what to look
  for in objectively improving quality delivery by
  lecturers. However its value is in giving the
  customer a chance to appreciate and rate the
  deliverers.
• Absence of benchmarking for quality assurance
  among course facilitators within respective
  universities is negatively impacting on the
  quality of content delivery. It was recommended
  that even at respective regional universities
  staff should initiate benchmarking approaches in
  their teaching deliveries.

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FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS CONT.

• Inconsistent university staff orientation was
  found to enhance low standards. It is recommended
  that using the space of DAAD and IUCEA, regional
  public universities should establish regional
  university teaching orientation centers for
  inducting new university staff recruits.
• Double standards in staff promotion in of the
  public universities is demoralizing good staff
  who are ignored.
• Advanced communication technology has
  diversified university education venture into
  ODL through UOP accredited as a university in
  1978 this approach removes the cost burden of
  providing lecturers with offices but it is only
  accessible to those regional universities that
  are linked to World web connection. Its
  accreditation and evaluation seem problematic as
  the key proxy of lecturer quality assessment is
  based on students satisfaction
• Aggressive expansion of the universities even in
  technology based degree programs and limited
  exposure to practical applications that should go
  with them. It was observed that regional
  universities in spreading their wings too wide
  have contributed to killing mid-level
  polytechnics that had an integral role of
  accreting and evaluating technical skills
  empirically.
• Technology oriented degree programs which lack
  value chain influence lack competitive perception
  of quality image by reducing all technical
  learning to theoretical knowledge.

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FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS CONT.

• Observed that performance deficiencies are
  sometimes caused by political patronage in
  positions of administration. It was recommended
  that once agreed admission standard have been
  fixed, there should be adherence and respect for
  the law.
• Owako (2000) observed that unwielding
  administrative structures often found in public
  universities, that have no reporting
  relationships are some of the surest ways of
  promoting inefficiency through to misdirected
  evaluation approaches.
• Public universities in regional states have gone
  in for restructuring as the end result of
  reviewing and rationalization the exercise
  works well for cost cutting, however this is
  likely to water down quality standards through
  excessive application of generic approaches.
• It was recommended that restructuring should to
  shorten internal communication loops within the
  institution to be a cost effective tool of
  evaluation and quality assurance and should have
  clear guidelines of reporting relationships.

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CONCLUSIONS

• Quality assurance in tertiary education
  institutions in the Eastern Africa region
  discussions could not have been more timely.
• To help us focus on global market in our human
  resources development
• To orchestrate the value of together we can go
  furthest
• To appreciate good will and good intent
  of our international partners in common focus.
• Education is the tool for seeing man for man
  through cooperation, collaboration and
  complementation.
• Thanks to Unistaff colleagues for igniting the
  fire for common focus, DAAD for making it happen,
  IUCEA for initiating the regional space alumni
  members for gracing the conference by attending
  and participating.

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THANK YOU ALL FOR PATIENCE AND AUDIENCE