External Quality Assurance (EQA) in higher education for SADC countries

Focusing on External Quality Assurance (EQA) in higher education, IIEP-UNESCO, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and the Southern African Quality Assurance Network (SAQAN) have formed a partnership to jointly organize two blended-learning courses for selected countries in the SADC region. The objective of the joint initiative is to develop capacities of higher education officials to design and implement quality assurance systems or improve existing ones, in line with international good practices. The training builds on four modules developed by UNESCO-IIEP, which are delivered online, followed by a one-week seminar enabling the participants to meet in person and exchange experiences. The first blended-learning course was offered for national teams from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius and South Africa and has been completed with a face-to-face meeting organised by the DAAD in 2019 in Gaborone, Botswana. The second cohort currently involves QA professionals from Eswatini, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The final seminar shall be held in Maputo, jointly organised by DAAD, and the Council on Quality Assurance in Higher Education (CNAQ) in Mozambique.

TrainIQA for the SADC region launching 2020-2021

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the University of Potsdam (UP), Centre for Quality Development, are preparing for the “Training on Internal Quality Assurance – TrainIQA”, a multi-part training course which supports Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to set up effective and sustainable quality assurance (QA) structures at institutional level. The course will be offered in Africa and Southeast Asia, targets primarily QA officers but engages university leadership as well. Five core modules which combine leadership and management topics will be delivered and discussed among participants in a series of workshops and conferences as well as online. The first training will be conducted end of 2020 in the SADC region in close cooperation with the Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA).

The SADC course forms part of DAAD’s engagement in Southern Africa aiming at strengthening capacities in EQA and IQA, starting with a policy seminar in Pretoria, South Africa (10/2017) and drawing also back on the results of a Study on “Regional Quality Assurance in Southern Africa (SADC)” published in 2018. All activities are implemented in the frame of the DIES programme (Dialogue on Innovative Higher Education Strategies), an initiative which is jointly coordinated the DAAD and the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK) and funded by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

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