To respond to the need for quality and relevant graduate training, RUFORUM held a two day sensitization workshop for senior administrators, Lecturers, Officers of the Councils and Commission for Higher Education from the ECSA in January 2011 in Entebbe, Uganda. The objective of the workshop was to be to sensitize the participants on Quality Assurance in higher education with specific focus on the concept of quality, criteria and standards, self-assessment, peer review/external assessment, improvement plan and role of programme coordinators to enhance the quality of programmes. The meeting also aimed at reviewing the proposed Quality Assurance Mechanism and Credit Accumulation and Transfer System (CATS). The workshop was attended by Deans, Principals, and Directors of Quality Assurance from regulatory bodies such as the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), Higher Education Quality Management Initiative for Southern Africa (HEQMISA), Commissions and Councils for Higher Education the in the region, academicians and policy makers.
The two day workshop employed plenary discussions so as to provide a platform for shared collective understanding while at the same time taking care of the specific interest of the different stakeholder categories. The presentations of the proposed quality assurance mechanism and credit accumulation and transfer system for universities in the region were enriched with roundtable discussions.
The discussions paved way for a number of recommendations for improving the proposed RUFORUM QAMs/CATs in the region including the adoption of existing best practices in research assessment such as those developed for assessing Europe’s University-Based Research; inclusion of the a participatory monitoring and evaluation of quality assurance withing HEIs, standardisation in quality rating mechanisms by regulatory authorities in the region among others. More details have been captured in the preceding sections/subsections of the workshop report.
