Internal Quality Assurance in Universities in Africa: Motivations and Methodologies

Higher education institutions (HEIs) and systems in Africa have embraced quality assurance (QA) as a means of instilling confidence in the stakeholders that the higher education (HE) being provided measures up to threshold standards. This chapter presents the QA architecture at HEI level in Africa. The data on the QA methodologies was gleaned from the QA frameworks for higher education (HE) of the African Union Commission, policies of HEIs on particular QA methodologies and the extant literature. The chapter demonstrates that HEIs in Africa employ and/or are expected to embrace a range of internal QA methodologies—student evaluation of teaching, pedagogical training, distinguished (or excellent) teacher awards, peer observation of teaching, moderation of examinations, external examination and self-assessment—in a bid to engender a quality culture and improve the quality teaching and research. However, the extant methodologies mirror those in advanced HE systems of Europe, the United States and Australia. The convergence of internal QA methodologies between HEIs in Africa and those in the Global North attests to internationalisation of QA and can be explained within the framework the neo-institutional theory.