SAAIR Quality Forum 2024
The 2024 SAAIR Quality Forum will be hosted by the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN). The theme developed by SAAIR and UKZN is, “Beyond the margins: Redefining and transforming practice for contextually relevant quality assurance in higher education”. The Quality Forum will be hosted as an in-person event at the Gateway Hotel in Durban.
The Quality Institute is specifically aimed at Quality Practitioners in Higher Education Institutions but is open to all individuals who have an interest in quality and quality enhancement in higher education. The Institute intends to create platforms for collaborative engagement on quality-related issues to improve planning, management, and decision-making within institutions and in the sector.
- RATIONALE FOR THE THEME:
The higher education landscape is rapidly evolving, increasing the need for institutions to adapt to changes within the sector. Re-examining Quality Promotion and Assurance (QPA) processes and practises in an increasingly globalised and digital world are essential for maintaining and continuously improving the standards of higher education, ensuring that institutions remain relevant in the 21st century. Against this backdrop, the implementation of the Council on Higher Education’s Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) provides an opportunity for innovative changes with greater self-regulation, responsibility and accountability for quality management within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).
Drawing on developmental approaches to building and supporting internal quality assurance within institutions, this year’s forum aims to provide a platform for discussions around QPA management systems, collaborative partnerships and digital transformation in quality assurance.
Sub-theme 1: Digital transformation
Topics related to this sub-theme interrogate how digital transformation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are used in the higher education sector and might be used to streamline and enhance quality assurance processes. The focus is mainly on how QA practices are adaptable and responsive to the changing needs and expectations of the digital learning environment.
Areas for discussion include:
- Evolution of technology, burgeoning microcredentials & quality assurance
- Artificial intelligence in QA / Artificial Intelligence in Student Engagement
- Themed Reviews – transition to hybrid and online modalities and the role of quality assurance in navigating between these two
Sub-theme 2: Collaborative Partnerships
This sub-theme seeks to understand the importance of collaborative partnerships in higher education for enhancing academic offerings, expanding research opportunities and increasing global engagement. The impact on quality assurance in such collaborations will be interrogated, will home in on good practice and lessons learnt from institutions who are champions in this area. The areas for discussion include:
- Internationalisation
- Joint degrees
- inter-institutional collaboration and co-development of courses &/or programmes
Sub-theme 3: Quality Promotion and Assurance management systems
This sub-theme examines strategies for fostering a culture of quality within institutions, in light of an ever-evolving higher education context. It also unpacks the use of dashboards for monitoring and evaluation as well as sharing best practices in quality assurance across HEIs. Practical approaches on how dashboards and data systems are used to monitor and evaluate as well as share quality practices across institutions should inform discussion.
Areas for discussion include:
- Curriculum Management systems
- Quality Dashboards
Sub-theme 4 : Professionalising QA
This sub-theme often surfaces when QA practitioners come together. It is a space where limited formal training is offered, and an emergent need for deep discussion on professionalisation and promotion of scholarship is evident. Many, if not all, who find themselves in QA have gained experience ‘on the job’ and soon come to realise that there is limited scope or time available to think more deeply about QA and existing practices. As a result, QA practitioners often become implementers of policies and procedures rather than advisors, innovators, leaders, influencers, researchers and scholars of QA. Further, much scholarship on QA is written from the perspective of academics, sometimes overlooking the QA-specialist experiences of quality management in higher education. This session is designed to include open discussion on issues of professionalising QA, collaboratively brainstorming practical ways in which practitioners can grow scholarship in QA.
Areas of discussion include:
- Benefits of professionalising QA
- Support required for the development of scholarship
- Practical steps in actioning the above.
The Quality Forum will:
- provide an opportunity to promote debate and share creative practices to improve quality in response to the transformation of universities through new technologies and the QAF.
- consider important links between quality assurance management systems, technology and collaborative partnerships in enhancing quality in higher education teaching and learning.
- explore the possibility of establishing a community of practice with the view to professionalization of QA and growth of scholarship for and by QA practitioners.