In order to continue the development and strengthening of external quality assurance in Africa, HAQAA2 offered further agency reviews of established external quality assurance agencies and consultancy visits to countries in which there is a newly established quality assurance agency or preparations are underway to set one up.
Under ENQA’s supervision, desk research was carried out by the ASG-QA Task Force, evaluating the eight review reports of the first round conducted under HAQAA1 (four consultancy visits and four agency reviews – Senegal, Cameroon, Togo, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Morocco, Mali – each of which received a visit by a team of experts which produced a review report). This resulted is suggested improvements for the agency review methodology, which was further used in HAQAA2.
Why agency reviews and consultancy visits?
QAA reviews are intended to contribute to the process of a shared understanding of how to perform external QA and accreditation. QAAs that accredit higher education institutions should similarly commit to certain standards in operation, as also expected when they evaluate higher education institutions. The reviews of agencies furthermore support the interlinks of internal and external quality assurance, as the agencies are put under a self‐reflective peer exercise similar to an accreditation process of an institution. The reviews are at the same time a training opportunity for experts and agencies who gain first‐hand experience in applying the ASG‐QA, via an agreed review methodology. Furthermore, the concept of agency reviews also enhances the international acceptance of African QAAs and in turn African HEIs (that have been accredited by an QAA) as this is a well-established mechanism in Europe and is also gaining prominence in other world regions (e.g. ASEAN).
HAQAA1 and HAQAA2 demonstrated that exposure to an external evaluation against continental standards – the ASG‐QA ‐ contributes to further development and regional alignment amongst agencies and those countries developing them. On a general level, it has become apparent that buy‐in for PAQAF and general uptake of the ASG-QA can be built through agency reviews and consultancy visits. The process and methodology established by HAQAA1 and adapted and improved in HAQAA2 will be important for the eventual set up of an African register of agencies, overseen by the Pan-African Accreditation and Quality Assurance Agency (PAQAA).
Methodology
The methodology has consisted of:
FIRST STEP
Recruiting a pool of African experts with experience in EQA and the development of QA systems, and matching these experts with EU experts, to form evaluation teams
SECOND STEP
Selecting interested agencies and ministries via a call for interest
THIRD STEP
Offering training to QA agency staff on the ASG-QA and conducting self-assessment
FOURTH STEP
Providing the agencies and ministries feedback on Self Assessment Reports
FIFHT STEP
Organizing visits of experts to the country, to verify the reports, probe deeper and speak with key stakeholders
SIXTH STEP
Delivering final assessment reports, which have recommendations for the further development of the QA system
Capacity building for QA agency staff
The training for participating agencies and ministries was conducted online in HAQAA. The training was divided into four parts:
- Part 1: The PAQAF, the ASG-QA, and the review methodology (Monday, 14 June 2021)
- Part 2: Preparing the self-assessment report (Monday, 6 July 2021)
- Part 3: Preparing the online site visit
- Part 4: Individual meetings between the ENQA review coordinator and the agency/ministry
Assessing the HAQAA2 experience of reviews
An ‘overarching report’ was commissioned for HAQAA2, which looked at the self-assessment reports of the countries involved, and also the final evaluation reports as delivered by the expert teams. The report compares them and draws conclusions and recommendations for 1) further training needed for the QA agency staff, to better prepare for self-assessment, 2) further methodological adjustments to consider, to increase the efficiency of the reviews. These recommendations were also validated at the final HAQAA2 conference in Accra Ghana on 6-9 December, where a day was dedicated to analyzing needs for capacity building for QA agencies.
DOWNLOAD THE OVERARCHING REPORT