The aim of this study was to determine the views of the Transkei College of Education (TCE) lecturers concerning the principles that should guide a quality assurance (QA) policy of the academic programme of the institution. To address this, five sub-questions were raised, dealing with respondents' perceptions on: generic or specific skills; involvement in drafting teacher education outcomes; the criteria for outcomes' assessment; programme monitoring and the handling of the results of the monitoring process. This case study, was conducted at TCE, in Umtata. Data were gathered by using a self-administered questionnaire distributed to all college lecturers, resulting in a (64%) return rate. Participating lecturers' responses revealed that they preferred that the teacher education programme contained both generic and specific skills/outcomes; that such outcomes be developed by stakeholders, the most important of which should be mastery of subject matter to be taught. The respondents' regarded the establishment of a committee to oversee the self-evaluation process as the most important criteria to be used in the process of self evaluation, while senior members of staff take on the responsibility of monitoring self-evaluation processes. The respondents felt that the results of self-evaluation should be used to improve and develop the programme. Overall, the respondents exhibited a good understanding of the principles that should guide the development of both the college's educational outcomes and a QA system for the college. The respondents also showed alacrity of thought regarding the important elements in the development of criteria and outcomes for the programme offered at the college, as well as for the assessment and monitoring of the programme to ensure quality. The study therefore, recommends that practical steps be put in place for the review of the educational outcomes of the college - which of necessity will entail maximum stakeholder participation - both from within the college and outside. Furthermore, it is also evident from the results of this study that the college is ready for a quality assurance system for its academic programme. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

Thesis (Masters Diploma(Educational Technology))--Cape Technikon, Cape Town, 1992 / Quality assurance has emerged as a vital element in tertiary education management at both the macro- and the institutional levels in the Netherlands as well as the united Kingdom. Although, from the nature of the matter, the situation in South Africa would obviously differ from that in these two respective countries, it is clear that universities and technikons may both learn considerably from the British and Dutch experiences. However, in this study the focus will be on technikons. In both the Netherlands and Britain comprehensive quality assurance systems have been established within the realm of higher education during the past decade. Although this phenomenon was largely prompted by external pressures, educational institutions themselves, individually and collectively, contributed substantially to the present system. Characteristic of the Dutch and British dispensations is the willingness on the part of the authorities to create structures for quality assurance. Such structures are still largely absent in South Africa. Compared to the British and Dutch systems, there is, particUlarly within local university education, very little by way of collective structures and actions towards ensuring quality. The link between quality of education and state funding is well established in the overseas countries studied. As a corollary to this, various measuring instruments have been developed for the purpose of determining quality. In this respect it is significant that in the United Kingdom the emphasis is on performance criteria, while in the Netherlands preference is given to peer evaluation. Although the State may through its actions do a great deal to ensure quality of education, individual institutions cannot escape accountability for the development of self-evaluation systems and promoting an internal quality culture and value system aimed at enhanced quality. However, in the process it is important to maintain a balance between efficiency in terms of management and effectiveness in terms of output.

Total Quality Management, (TQM), is an internationally recognized system of improving quality in industry. Globally, academic institutions have also adopted the principles of TQM systems to enhance the quality of their operations. The main aim of this study was to determine whether a TQM system can be implemented at faculty level in a University and what resources would make it sustainable. Research data was obtained by surveying staff and students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, (UKZN). A probability sample of 330, from a population size of 2500, was drawn from the Faculty of Engineering at UKZN. Qualitative and quantitative data from questionnaires and phenomenological interviews was collected for analysis to meet the studies objectives. A salient feature of the study was that all candidates surveyed believed that a TQM system was needed for the Faculty of Engineering at UKZN. The study also showed that staff and students believed that a TQM system would lead to improved quality, standards, operational efficiency, image and reputation for the Faculty of Engineering. The overall results revealed that a University faculty‟s operations would benefit from improved quality. A TQM system would be the most appropriate method of achieving improved quality across the board. The study led to the development of a TQM system framework and model that would benefit operations in a University faculty. The study can assist other University faculties that want to improve their operations, across the board, by using a TQM system. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2011.

This pilot research survey was undertaken as a result of the need to assess the service quality within Higher Education in general and the Department of Management at UWC in particular. This report focuses on the complexities of measuring service quality in higher education. The quality of service delivery within education is becoming more important as the competition for students increases.<br /> The literature was searched to find a suitable measure with a sound theoretical structure. This measure was then adapted for the department.<br /> <br /> In a preliminary way this instrument was then applied to students in the department and initial results are reported on.<br /> The results revealed that undergraduates overall were uncertain in their attitude to the service quality in the department. On the other hand, postgraduate students tended to rate the service quality rather more negatively (p &lt / 0.004). Furthermore there were no gender differences except for tangibles (p = 000.5).<br /> <br /> This pilot study could serve as a pilot study of the service quality in an academic environment. It is the main contention of this report that students themselves should be part of defining quality.

M. Tech. (Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology / This study is an attempt to conceptualise and enhance the quality management of the short course offerings at the Vaal University of Technology (VUT). The Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) conducted its first cycle of institutional audit exercises from 2004 – 2009 at private and public universities in South Africa. This study follows on the HEQC audit panel’s report, with reference to VUTs offering of short courses (SCs). The HEQC informed the institution that the quality assurance system of SCs is not on par with the requirements of the HEQC. Therefore, it does not meet the minimum standards for an effective quality management system for SCs. It is imperative for the institution to conceptualise the quality management of SCs and to develop a system that ensures ongoing improvement. This study addresses this gap by conceptualising the quality management of SCs on national level in higher education. The study draws on good practices on national level that can inform the refinement of the existing quality assurance system for SCs at VUT. The empirical study was conducted with public institutions of higher learning in South Africa. Quantitative data were collected from dedicated SCs and/or quality assurance or quality management offices at all 23 public institutions of higher learning. Five universities were identified as institutions with good practice, based on quantitative information that was gathered, analysed and interpreted during this study. The study revealed that it is imperative for higher education institutions to develop quality assurance systems that are based on cyclical processes of ongoing improvement, such as the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act), PIRI (Plan-Implement- Review-Improve) and ADRI (Approach-Deployment-Results-Improvement) models. A key assumption of the research is that quality assurance for SCs at VUT should be aligned with the institution’s quality assurance system. The study highlights the value of the principles of Total Quality Management, the notion of continuous improvement, self-evaluation and external monitoring. Recommendations in this study suggest that VUT should conduct further institutional benchmarking exercises with the five institutions that received commendations and full delegations, in order to develop a conceptual model for understanding and enhancing its SC offerings.

This pilot research survey was undertaken as a result of the need to assess the service quality within Higher Education in general and the Department of Management at UWC in particular. This report focuses on the complexities of measuring service quality in higher education. The quality of service delivery within education is becoming more important as the competition for students increases.<br /> The literature was searched to find a suitable measure with a sound theoretical structure. This measure was then adapted for the department.<br /> <br /> In a preliminary way this instrument was then applied to students in the department and initial results are reported on.<br /> The results revealed that undergraduates overall were uncertain in their attitude to the service quality in the department. On the other hand, postgraduate students tended to rate the service quality rather more negatively (p &lt / 0.004). Furthermore there were no gender differences except for tangibles (p = 000.5).<br /> <br /> This pilot study could serve as a pilot study of the service quality in an academic environment. It is the main contention of this report that students themselves should be part of defining quality.

This is a one year half thesis. This research was conducted within the context of the food services sector of Higher Education Institution dining halls and in the midst of the rising global call for food resource management and food waste reduction. The main aim of this research therefore was to identify opportunities for learning and change for a more sustainable food economy, contributing to Education for Sustainable Production and Consumption, and by further implication, Education for Sustainable Development. To achieve this aim, I used Cultural Historical Activity Theory as theoretical and methodological framework; drawing on the second and the third generations of this theory. Implicated in the above research approach is the identification of expansive learning opportunities from the surfacing of ‘tensions’ and ‘contradictions’. In this case study of the Rhodes University Campus Food Services, such tensions and contradictions inhibiting a more sustainable food economy, involving food waste production were identified. To narrow the scope of the study, one dining hall formed the focus of the case, with a two phased research approach whereby one research question and three goals were developed for each phase. The former being the exploration phase and the latter being the initial stages of the expansive phase. Methods used in line with the methodological framework included ten individual interviews with food producers (staff members), nine focus group discussions with food consumers (students), observations of the dining hall activities which lasted for over a month and two ‘Change Laboratory Workshops’. Some of the findings of this research are that food wastage cannot be addressed and appropriately curtailed without an intensive consideration of all the stages of food economy. Multiple contradictions and sources of tensions embedded in the Food Services Sector constituted major causes of food waste. Additionally, the lack of substantial food waste related teaching and learning activities, the presence of disputed rules, institutional structure and traditional practices within the Food Services all exacerbated the tensions and contradictions. More so, prioritizing some of this identified contradictions and tensions hindering a more sustainable food economy and relegating some as unimportant or nonurgent is unproductive. Finally, the non-existence of facilitated deliberation, consultation, dialogue, collaboration between food producers and food consumers has been identified as an obstacle to learning and institutional change. Recommendations abound in re-orienting, re-educating, and re-informing the constituents of the food economy. Re-visiting and revising of rules and regulations guiding conduct of students and kitchen staff members in the RU dining halls, as well as revision of existing learning support materials and mediating tools in use is needed. Recognition and consideration of the concerns and interests of students and kitchen staff members are also needed. Finally, there is a need to continue to address the tensions and contradictions identified in this case study, to further the Expansive Learning Process if a more sustainable food economy at Rhodes University is to be established.

Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Magister Technologiae: Quality in the Faculty of Engineering at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2008 / Increasing customer demand for quality products and services have virtually forced organisations to adopt quality in every aspect of their business enterprises. Due to dynamic technological, political and economic changes in the world of business, the science of management is volatile. Higher Education Institutions are service providers and the customers thereof should be the focal point of their existence, requiring very specific structures to manage service quality within the various areas of application. After extensive research on customer complaint behaviours, the value of customer complaints have been highlighted, as it leads to useful insight into critical aspects pertaining to service organisations. Some customers 'pre-plan' complaints, and this act has been labeled as 'faked complaints'. This may lead to the organisation obtaining an image of service failure, however this is not a true representation of the organisation, thus impacting adversely on the efficiency of the organisation. The primary research objectives of this study are the following: ~ To identify key drivers underpinning complaints at the Cape Peninsula University ofTechnology (CPUT), in terms of service delivery. ~ To determine if management has a strategic focus on the quality of service to students at CPUT. ~ To demonstrate the impact that management has on the quality of service delivery. ~ To improve customer service at CPUT by minimizing complaints. It is anticipated that the research will lead to an improvement in the current state of service delivery at CPUT. By identifying and providing possible solutions to customer complaints and addressing problem areas, the research in addition should lead to improved communication between departments and communication between CPUT and its customers (students).

This study explores the potential for critical pedagogical innovation to expand student learning activity, meaning making and learning agency of first year undergraduate students. The study is located in a larger critical project. Rather than looking to support ‘unprepared’ students to better adapt to the current culture of higher education, the larger critical project looks to the generative potential of new students to elaborate the structure of higher education itself over time. The study emanates from a process of reflective self-critique of one higher education institution in South Africa serving a student population with little access to educational advantage. The emerging critique was located at the interface of institutional practice, student learning activity and the meaning making processes mediating the two domains. This critique gave birth to the pedagogical innovation at the centre of this study. The pedagogical innovation took the form of an activity system, with three sets of pedagogical tools mediating the system: tools to expand the learning practice of students, symbolic tools to expand the critical meaning making toolkit available, and tools designed to build a new learning community better aligned with interactive learning activity. This study is an intervention case study, theoretically grounded in the work of activity and socio-cultural theorists. The pedagogy was embedded within a semester long credit-bearing core course for entering first year students. The study follows the experience of the 652 students participating in the 2010 pilot experience. Upwards of 70% of students suggest that their reading (76%) and writing (71%) practice had changed by the end of the course. Over 80% indicated that the course made them better readers (85%) and writers (84%.) Students suggest that they read and write more and enjoy reading and writing more. They suggest that as motive expanded, activity of reading and writing expanded, complimentary activity expanded (e.g. expression and critical engagement), and participation across a number of domains expanded. Students with less historical access to educational advantage made stronger claims about the pedagogical toolkit than students with more access to educational advantage. This study suggests that under the right conditions, critical pedagogy focusing on student learning activity and meaning making can expand learning practice and meaning making of first year undergraduate students, contributing to an expanding claim on learning agency. It tentatively suggests that this type of learning architecture is well aligned for appropriation of students with less access to historical socio-educational learning privilege, but remains sensitive to the situated nature of historic disadvantage (for example, in campus sites.) The study points to the specific potential of three toolkits: toolkits to mediate expanded learning activity, toolkits to expand meaning making, and toolkits designed to directly reconstitute the learning community itself. The study concludes by extracting some lessons for critical pedagogical innovation serving first year studies into the future. It points to the importance of the domain of learning activity and meaning making, and suggests the kind of changes within the culture of higher education required to better unleash innovation in this area. It points to the generative potential of methods that better combine students and lecturers within pedagogical innovation processes. The study concludes by pointing to the relatively unoccupied area of critical research, whereby the work to expand the learning activity of first year students is aligned to the potential of students to elaborate the structure of higher education itself over time. The study points to three specific research areas: research building stronger pedagogical tools for first year students; research to better understand the critical meaning making project of students; and research to better understand the transformation of the pedagogical inheritance within higher education.

At an international level, demands for accountability in respect of the quality of teaching and learning in higher education are increasing. This is also the case in South Africa. The response to these demands has taken the form of the introduction of quality assurance systems to higher education. In South Africa, a formal national external quality assurance was introduced to the higher education system in 2001 as a result of the establishment of the Higher Education Quality Committee. The Higher Education Quality Committee is a standing committee of the South African Council on Higher Education. Like other quality assurance agencies across the world, the Higher Education Quality Committee has the responsibility for i) auditing institutions of higher education and ii) accrediting learning programmes. The first cycle of institutional audits ran from 2004 until 2011. As quality assurance was introduced to the higher education system and the first cycle of institutional audits began, universities in South Africa developed policies and procedures intended to assure quality in three areas of their core functioning: research, teaching and learning and community engagement. The University of Venda, which is the focus of the study on which this thesis is based, was no exception. As a practitioner in the Centre for Higher Education Teaching and Learning at The University of Venda, it was my observation that the policies and procedures intended to assure quality in teaching and learning were not always implemented by academic staff members. This was in spite of poor student performance data which raised questions about the quality of the teaching and learning processes in place. The study underpinning this thesis was designed to explore this phenomenon. More specifically, it aimed to identify the conditions enabling and constraining the implementation of policies and procedures in two Schools in the University: the School of Health Sciences and the School of Human and Social Sciences. In order to explore these conditions, I adopted Roy Bhaskar’s Critical Realism as an under-labouring philosophy for the study. Critical realism posits a view of reality comprising three strata, none of which can be reducible to the other. The first of these strata is termed the level of the Empirical and consists of the experiences and observations which become apparent to us through the senses. The second layer, the Actual, consists of events from which these experiences and observations emerge. Underpinning both of these layers is a further layer, the Real, which is not accessible by empirical means and which consists of structures and mechanisms which generate both events at the level of the Actual and experiences and observation at the level of the Empirical. The design of my study sought to reach this deepest layer of reality to identify these mechanisms. Bhaskar’s critical realism is philosophy which needs to be operationalized using substantive, or explanatory, theory. For this purpose, I drew on Margaret Archer’s social realism. The design on my study drew on case study methodology and involved in-depth interviews with members of the two Schools which each formed cases within the more overarching case of the University itself. In addition to these interviews, I analysed a range of institutional documents related to the assurance of quality in teaching and learning. The exploration of enabling and constraining conditions at the level of the Real allow me to make a series of recommendations in the final Chapter of my thesis intended to enhance the quality assurance system introduced to the University.