‘Higher education quality checking crucial’

Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Technology Chikumbutso Hiwa has said Malawi lacks a national quality assurance framework for higher education which has made it difficult for the country to regulate standards of higher education.

Hiwa said this on Monday when opening the national deans’ workshop in Lilongwe.

He said the National Council for Higher Education, which government is setting up, will help fill the gap and ensure that all tertiary institutions meet the required quality standards.

“The establishment of quality assurance systems and procedures has become a necessity, not only for monitoring quality in higher education delivered within the institution and the country, but also for engaging in delivery of higher education internationally,” said Hiwa.

He said colleges need to instil more competencies in students to enable them to easily adapt to challenging work environments.

“In the past decade, the country has witnessed a multitude of new private universities and degree programmes of unknown quality being developed and offered. The management of quality assurance of teaching and learning programmes at faculty level is the responsibility of deans,” said Hiwa.

Secretary for Higher Education Dr Macphail Magwira said regulating tertiary institutions has been a challenge with the proliferation of private colleges and absence of the regulatory body for the institutions.