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Council on Higher Education - South Africa

Presents

2020 Quality Promotion Conference

26 to 28 February 2020

CSIR International Convention Centre

Pretoria - South Africa

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Theme: 

Enhancing Academic Success through the Involvement of Students in Quality Assurance and Promotion in Higher Education

Keynote Speaker

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Prof Kuzvinetsa Dzvimbo

Prof K P Dzvimbo is currently the CEO of the Zimbabwe Council of Higher Education (ZIMCHE).  Prior to that appointment in December 2018, he served as a Deputy Vice Chancellor: Academic and Research and Vice Principal at the Vaal University of Technology.  He has wide experience in higher and tertiary education which includes working as: the founding Executive Dean of the College of Education at UNISA, Professor of Educational Management and Leadership and Head of Department at the University of Johannesburg; Senior Lecturer in Education at Wits University; Dean of the Faculty of Education and Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Zimbabwe; Rector of the African Virtual University in Nairobi, Kenya;  Senior Education Specialist in The World Bank, Washington DC; founding Vice Chancellor of The Zimbabwe Open University; and Vice Principal of a Technical Teachers College in Zimbabwe.  He sits on the Board of the UNESCO Institute of Education based in Moscow, Russia.  Prof Dzvimbo is currently the President of the Southern African Quality Assurance Network (SAQAN).  His key areas of interest include building communities of practice in Quality Assurance in Higher Education on the African continent and the quest for developing an autochthonous epistemic discourse-practice for Quality Assurance in African Higher and Tertiary Education.  Prof Dzvimbo obtained his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; an M. Ed. from Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria; and a PGDE and B. A. from the University of Sierra Leone.

Following the successful hosting of  third Southern African Regional Quality Assurance Conference under the auspices of the Southern African Quality Assurance Network (SAQAN) in 2016, the Southern African Regional Quality Assurance Workshop with the funding from the German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD) in 2017, and Quality Promotion Conference in 2019, the CHE is pleased to release its first announcement of the 2020 Quality Promotion Conference which is scheduled to take place from 26 to 28 February 2020. The theme of the conference is: Enhancing Academic Success through the Involvement of Students in Quality Assurance and Promotion in Higher Education.

Background and motivation for the theme

Higher education plays a critical role in the socio-economic development of countries and is a central pillar of knowledge societies in the contemporary world. It is for these reasons that the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of higher education have been subject to constant scrutiny, particularly from the point of view of public accountability. The quality of higher education is not just a concern for quality assurance agencies and academics in institutions, but also for all stakeholders within the higher education sector, including students. After all, the primary objective of quality assurance and promotion is to create conditions for ‘academic success’, which is defined as the attainment, by students, of the learning objectives, the desired skills and competencies, satisfaction, persistence, and acceptable post-qualification performance in the work environment.[1]

Quality assurance and promotion are therefore primarily about the success of students in their academic pursuits. To this end, the involvement of students in quality matters is of paramount importance, since students are at the receiving end of the teaching and learning experience.  Students need to have a good understanding of issues of quality and the processes thereof, as such understanding enables them to make informed decisions on how they can be part of the quality assurance and promotion initiatives, and thus influence these initiatives to facilitate the creation of conditions for their academic success. Quality literacy does not only enhance the involvement of students, but it also empowers them to define and shape quality in academic programmes and institutional arrangements, in ways that they contribute to success in their academic pursuits. The ability to do so should be central to quality assurance and promotion in institutions.

Although there is general acceptance of the importance of involving students in quality assurance and promotion initiatives, the actual practice has been both sporadic and ad hoc. It would appear from the literature, that in most higher education institutions, there is minimal, if any, involvement of students in quality assurance and promotion initiatives. Furthermore, in those institutions where there is some semblance of involvement in quality assurance and promotion initiatives, the roles of the students in such initiatives are not clearly defined.

 

The conference on ‘Enhancing Academic Success through the Involvement of Students in Quality Assurance and Promotion in Higher Education’ is intended to provide a platform for critical discourses on the need for, and approaches to enhancing academic success by upscaling the involvement of students in quality assurance activities within higher education in South Africa; the international trends thereof; and challenges that hinder achievement of optimal levels of the involvement of students in quality assurance and promotion programmes. It is further envisaged that the conference participants will deliberate on strategies for upscaling the involvement of students in quality assurance and promotion initiatives with a view towards improving academic success.

 

[1] York, T. T., Gibson, C., & Rankin, S. (2015) Defining and measuring academic success, Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation, 20(5): 1 - 21

Conference aim and objectives

The aim of the conference is to explore mechanisms for upscaling the involvement of students in quality assurance and promotion in higher education as a means to enhancing academic success.

 

The objectives are:

  • To deconstruct the ‘academic success’ concept and draw links to quality assurance and promotion in higher education;

  • To examine the possible contribution of ‘student involvement’ in quality assurance and promotion, towards enhancing academic success;

  • To examine the different models of, and approaches to student involvement in quality assurance and promotion;

  • To explore local and international trends in student involvement in quality assurance and promotion in a changing higher education environment;

  • To identify institutional structures that could be employed to foster student involvement in quality assurance and promotion; and

  • To assess the common challenges of upscaling student involvement in quality assurance and promotion, and to identify possible strategies for overcoming them.

Participants

The conference intends to bring together about 200 participants from across the African continent. The participants should ideally be affiliated to:

  • Public and private higher education institutions;

  • National and institutional-level student bodies;

  • Quality assurance agencies;

  • Professional bodies;

  • Research institutions;

  • Ministries and/or Departments of Higher Education; and

  • Non-governmental organisations operating within the higher education sector.

 

Academics, students, quality assurance and promotion staff in higher education institutions, quality assurance and promotion staff in councils or commissions of higher education, quality assurance and promotion staff in professional bodies, researchers, policy developers, and policy analysists are particularly encouraged to attend the conference.

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