The purpose of the guidelines is to provide an overview of a quality assurance system responsive to the needs of stakeholders. It addresses the elements making up the system. As per the Education and Training (Miscellaneous Provisions Bill), April 2005, in situations endeavoring to offer post – secondary education and training should subject themselves to quality control measures administered by the Tertiary Education Commission.
Providers of education have the responsibility to assure stakeholders and the public at large that the education and training they are providing are of a respectable quality which is accepted and recognized by employers and other educational institutions nationally, regionally and internationally.
In this respect, it is their foremost duty to consult all the parties concerned and affected by their operations towards ensuring that their programs meet international norms and standards. They will be called upon to provide tangible evidence to demonstrate that they have taken necessary steps to meet the above requirements. To be able to undertake such activities, the institutions must put in place credible and reliable quality assurance systems.
The quality assurance system should be designed to look into the quality of the institution’s educational provision and to inform stakeholders on the effectiveness of the system put in place towards ensuring and improving quality. Such a system should be developed collectively through the participation of key players of the institution. Ideally they should work towards identifying the relevant areas that need addressing by the system as the needs would vary with size and complexity of the institution in consideration.
The backbone of a sound quality assurance system is the institution’s mission statement. The institution should articulate the direction it should take, but at the same time ensure that the mission is in keeping with the socio – economic needs of Mauritius . Following form that, the goals and objectives also should be compatible with the mission. In practice it means that institutions have to demonstrate that the programs they intend to offer are needed by employers and that they add value to the tertiary education system.
Thus, while it can be very tempting to offer programs in specific fields, the institution should consider whether their graduates are employable and if not, then find out the reasons and reconsider offering the program proposed. Most private institutions would be more concerned with assuring quality in teaching and learning and in this respect the system should focus on ways and means of maintaining and enhancing quality in this domain. For a comprehensive list of requirements for purposes of quality assurance, institutions are referred to t he criteria applicable for accreditation. The basic structure for setting up a quality assurance system consists of an office/unit of quality assurance which should be serviced by someone who has overall responsibility for quality assurance in the institution.
He/She is someone at senior level of management and should be conversant with quality assurance procedures. He/She should set up a coordinating committee in which the key players are present. In this committee, all matters concerning the quality issues should be discussed and a systematic approach of addressing them should be developed.
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