University quality assurance body rendered toothless by Minister 

16 April 2015

I will write to the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, to request that he not render the Council for Higher Education (CHE) toothless by narrowing their oversight function over South African Universities.

In a presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training yesterday it was revealed that the CHE, the main body set up after 1994 to hold the tertiary education system to rigorous standards, is no longer empowered to hold Universities to account for their overall performance.

The CHE and its sub-unit, the Higher Education Quality Council, were originally set up to conduct rigorous reviews of teaching, learning, research and community-engagement aspects of each University, using international and local experts. 

Universities were then required to self-report on a wide range of topics. These reports would then be evaluated, made public and the Universities were then required to prepare extensive improvement plans covering areas of weakness. 

However these vital audits have now been abandoned and replaced with a far less extensive and toothless system of so-called “Quality Enhancement”, through which Universities are simply “assisted” to improve their pass rates. 

The shrinking of the vision of the CHE and the move from evaluation to assistance, is a symptom of the general timidity of the ANC-led government when it comes to actually measuring quality, and giving clear messages to institutions as to what is expected of them. 

One of the most shocking examples of this move emerged in the Committee meeting when the CHE Acting CEO admitted that some Teacher Training courses had been deemed to be of low quality by the Council, but that they had not lost their accreditation “for political reasons”. 

One of the many aims of universities is to provide students with the requisite knowledge and skills to enable them to find employment. If the quality of University education is not upheld, so too will the quality of the graduates and their employment opportunities.

This cannot be able allowed to happen. If the Minister is serious about maintaining the quality of our universities and of our graduates, he will allow CHE to carry out its original mandate.

Statement issued by Prof Belinda Bozzoli MP, DA Shadow Minister of Higher Education and Training, April 16 2015

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