Equity and quality assurance - UNESDOC Databaseunesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001871/187184e.pdf ·...

Policy-makers in higher education need to formulate coherent and effective overall policies for higher education. They are thus looking for opportunities to create synergies and a stronger consistency in their policy-making. Equity and quality are two long-standing but separate strands

in higher education policy agendas in terms of policy targets and implementation mechanisms. Equity is the older, yet persistent policy issue. Quality has recently moved up on policy agendas and finds itself materialized through the creation of numerous quality assurance schemes worldwide.This publication explores whether there is scope for equity and quality to come together on higher education policy agendas and under what conditions they can do so. Authors from countries as diverse as Australia, Brazil, India, and South Africa discuss the relationships between equity policies and the quality assurance systems. Their analysis focuses on: (1) the equity problematic in their respective countries from a historical and sociological perspective; (2) the current policy framework for equity in higher education; (3) how the national quality assurance systems reflect equity (including main mechanisms for quality assessment, equity concerns expressed in the quality model and equity friendly process elements); and (4) the presumed impact that the quality assurance system has had on equity in higher education in terms of institutional policies and practices.

The editor

Michaela Martin is Programme Specialist at the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO), Paris.

ISBN: 92-803-1347-5

International Institutefor Educational Planning


Equity and quality assuranceA marriage of two minds

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aela Martin

Edited by Michaela Martin

New trends in higher education

The views and opinions expressed in this booklet are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of UNESCO or the IIEP. The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this review do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO or the IIEP concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning its frontiers or boundaries.

The publication costs of this study have been covered through a grant-in-aid offered by UNESCO and by voluntary contributions made by several Member States of UNESCO, the list of which will be found at the end of the volume.

Published by: International Institute for Educational Planning7-9 rue Eugène Delacroix, 75116 Parise-mail: [email protected] web site: www.iiep.unesco.org

Cover design: Typesetting: Linéale ProductionPrinted in IIEP’s printshopISBN: 978-92-803-1347-5© UNESCO 2010

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.iiep.unesco.org

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of abbreviations 9List of tables 12List of boxes 14List of graphs 15About the authors 17Executive summary 19Preface 21

1. Equity and quality assurance: can they come together? An introduction to the problematic, Michaela Martin 23 1.1 Introduction 23

1.2 Equity, a continuous concern on policy agendas 25 1.3 The concept of equity in higher education 25 1.4 Equity groups 26 1.5 Equity policies in higher education 27 1.6 From equity of access to equity of outcomes 29 1.7 External quality assurance: does it relate to equity

concerns? 29 1.8 The topic of this research 31 1.9 The choice of countries 33 1.10 The authors and the framework for the preparation

of the papers 35

2. Equity issues in quality assurance in South African higher education, Lis Lange and Mala Singh 37

2.1 Introduction 37 2.2 Contextualizing the issue of equity in South Africa 37 2.3 The policy and legislative status of equity

in South African higher education 48 2.4 The Higher Education Quality Committee and

the equity imperative 53 2.5 Conclusion 71


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Table of contents

3. Equity and quality assurance in Brazilian higher education, Dilvo Ristoff 75

3.1 Introduction 75 3.2 SINAES: The Brazilian national system

of higher education evaluation 81 3.3 Equity concerns in SINAES 85 3.4 Revelations of the national student performance

examination – ENADE 88 3.5 When equity faces quality 96 3.6 Equity and quality: PROUNI democratizes access

and boosts quality 100 3.7 Equity and quality: Distance education democratizes

access and boosts quality 103 3.8 Conclusion 106

4. The case of the Australian Universities Quality Agency, Antony Stella 109

4.1 Introduction 109 4.2 Equity policy of Australia 111 4.3 Support to the HE sector and monitoring 118 4.4 EQA and equity issues 124 4.5 The indigenous focus 132 4.6 Attention to other equity issues 135 4.7 Conclusion 141

5. India: the contribution of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, Asha Gupta, Jagannath Patil 145

5.1 Introduction 145 5.2 Higher education in India 148 5.3 Equity issues in Indian higher education 151 5.4 Legal framework of equity policies 156 5.5 The National Assessment and Accreditation Council 159 5.6 Conclusion 170


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Table of contents

6. Equity and external quality assurance: a marriage of two minds?, Michaela Martin 175

6.1 Introduction 175 6.2 On the infl uence of historical factors on equity 176 6.3 On the current equity problematic in higher education 179 6.4 The prevailing policy framework for equity

in higher education 183 6.5 On the relationship of equity policies and

external quality assurance systems 189 6.6 On the effect of equity sensitive EQA on

institutional policies and practices 200 6.7 Conclusion 204References 211Websites 220


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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ADRI approach, deployment, results and improvementAEP Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education PolicyAICTE All India Council for Technical EducationAIU Association of Indian UniversitiesANC African National CongressAQF Australian Qualifi cations FrameworkAQFAB Australian Qualifi cations Framework Advisory BoardARR apparent retention rateATSI Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander AUQA Australian Universities Quality AgencyBC business and commerceCAPES Higher Education Staff Development Scheme

(Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior)CAR commendation, affi rmation, recommendationCESM classifi cation of educational study matterCHE Council on Higher EducationCONAES National Higher Education Evaluation Committee

(Comissão Nacional de Avaliação da Educação Superior)CTAA Technical Evaluation Monitoring Commission

(Comissão Técnica de Acompanhamento da Avaliação)DEAES Directorate for Statistics and Higher Education Evaluation

(Directoria de Estatìsticas e Avaliação da Educação Superior)DEET Department of Education, Employment and TrainingDEEWR Department of Education, Employment and Workplace RelationsDEST Department of Education, Science and TechnologyDoE Department of EducationDSP Disability Support ProgrammeDVC Deputy Vice ChancellorENADE National student performance examination

(Exame Nacional de Desempenho dos Estudantes)EQA External Quality AssuranceESP Equity Support Programme


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List of abbreviations

FIES National Student Loan Programme (Programa de Financiamento Estudantil)

GDP gross domestic productGER gross enrolment rateGOI Government of IndiaGPDB good practice databaseGPI Gender Parity IndexHE higher educationHEEP higher education equity programmeHEI higher education institutionHEQC Higher Education Quality CommitteeHESA Higher Education Support ActHSRC Human Sciences Research CouncilHSS humanities and social sciencesIAF institution assessment frameworkIBGE Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics

(Instituto Brasileiro de Geografi a e Estatística)IES indigenous education statementIIM Indian institutes of managementIIT Indian institutes of technologyINEP National Institute for Educational Research

(Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira)

INQAAHE International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education

LDB Federal Law for Education(Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional)

LIBRAS Brazilian sign language (Língua Brasileira de Sinais)MAP Melbourne Access ProgrammeMEC Ministry of Education (Ministerio da Educação)NAAC National Assessment and Accreditation CouncilNBA National Board of AccreditationNCHE National Commission for Higher EducationNCT National Capital TerritoryNESB non-English speaking backgroundsNPHE National Plan for Higher EducationNSAI non self-accrediting institution


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List of abbreviations

NSFAS National Student Financial Aid SchemeOAB Brazilian Lawyers Organization

(Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil)OBC other backward classesPAIUB Institutional Evaluation Programme of Brazilian Universities

(Programa de Avaliação Institucional das Universidades Brasileiras)

PNE Education Master Plan (Plano Nacional de Educação)

PROUNI Scholarship programme for needy student (Programa Universidade para Todos)

PVC Pro-Vice ChancellorQA quality assuranceRAR re-accreditation reportsRPL recognition of prior learningSAI self-accrediting institutionSAPSE South African post-secondary educationSAQA South African Qualifi cation AuthoritySC scheduled castesSES socio-economic statusSET science, engineering and technologySINAES National Higher Education Evaluation System

(Sistema Nacional de Avaliação da Educação Superior)SPR student progress rateSSR self-study reportsST scheduled tribesTAFE technical and further educationTSA Technikon Southern AfricaUAB Brazilian Open University

(Universidade Aberta do Brasil)UGC University Grants CommissionUNISA University of South AfricaUPA United Progress AllianceWP White Paper


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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 Comparative statistics on the higher education sector of the four countries 34

Table 2.1 Participation rates by race group* in 1993 and 2004 44Table 2.2 2000 cohort intake: all fi rst-time entering students 45Table 2.3 Graduation after fi ve years in professional fi rst

B-degrees, by selected CESM group and race: fi rst-time entering students excluding UNISA 45

Table 2.4 Graduation after fi ve years in general academic fi rst B-degrees, by selected CESM group and race: fi rst-time entering students excluding UNISA 46

Table 2.5 Graduation after 5 years in National Diplomas, by selected CESM group and race: fi rst-time entering students excluding TSA 46

Table 3.1 Programme evaluation indicators, grades and criteriarelated to inclusion 87

Table 3.2 Percentage of higher education students who come from public schools 94

Table 3.3 Percentage of graduates who hold jobs related to undergraduate majors* 98

Table 3.4 Average scores in general education 101Table 3.5 Average scores in the specifi c professional

component 102Table 3.6 General average examination scores 102Table 3.7 Average scores of distance education and on-site

freshmen. ENADE 2005 and 2006 104Table 3.8 Average scores of freshmen and fi nal year students

in on-site and distance education 105Table 3.9 Scores in majors in which freshmen and fi nal year

students participated 106Table 5.1 Growth of institutions and enrolment in higher

education 149


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List of tables

Table 5.2 Rise in the share of private aided and un-aided HEIsin India, (2000-2001 to 2005-2006) 151

Table 5.3 Share of women in total enrolment in higher education 152

Table 5.4 Share of enrolment of SC and ST students in higher education 153

Table 5.5 Groups with a lower enrolment ratio in higher education 1999-2000 (fi gures in percentage) 154

Table 5.6 Percentage of incremental academic growth in terms of aggregate marks 169

Table 6.1 Comparative table of policy instruments related to equity 188

Table 6.2 Mechanisms for EQA used in the four case countries 191

Table 6.3 Existence of process elements supportive of equity 198Table 6.4 Follow-up measures to EQA mechanisms 200


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LIST OF BOXES

Box 1. Indigenous education statement of the University of Sydney (2005-2007 triennium) 115

Box 2. Higher Education Support Act 2003 119Box 3. Performance-based funding for disability support

programmes 120Box 4. Higher education sector indigenous performance

indicators 122Box 5. Key movements in indigenous higher education

in 2006 123Box 6. Impact of AUQA audit: equity and diversity

implementation plan 2007-2009 of the University of Newcastle 129

Box 7. From the Good Practice Database of AUQA: Melbourne Access Programme (MAP) of the University of Melbourne 130

Box 8. From the good practice database of AUQA: supporting the indigenous cause 135

Box 9. Comments from AUQA audit reports on other equitygroups 139

Box 10. Criteria in NAAC assessment manuals relating to equity issues 163


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LIST OF GRAPHS

Graph 3.1 Percentage of poor students on campus and in Brazilian society 88

Graph 3.2 Percentage of wealthy students on campus and in Brazilian society 89

Graph 3.3 Percentage of whites in Brazilian society and on campus 90

Graph 3.4 Percentage of blacks in Brazilian society and on campus 91

Graph 3.5 Percentage of mulattoes in Brazilian society and on campus 92

Graph 3.6 Percentage of higher education students by school origin 93

Graph 3.7 Last-year students whose fathers received no formal schooling 95


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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Antony Stella is Audit Director of the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA), Australia.

Asha Gupta is Director of Hindi Language Implementation at the University of Delhi, India.

Lis Lange is Executive Director of the Higher Education Quality Committee of South Africa.


Jagarnath Patil is Deputy Adviser at the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, India.

Dilvo Ristoff is the former Director of the National Institute for Educational Studies and Research, INEP (Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira), Brazil.

Mala Singh is Professor of International Higher Education Policy at the Centre for Higher Education Research and Information, Open University, UK.


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Policymakers in higher education need to formulate coherent and effective overall policies. They are thus looking for opportunities to create synergies and a stronger consistency in their policy-making.

Equity and quality are two long-standing, however separate, strands of higher education policy agendas, in terms of policy targets and implementation mechanisms. Of the two, equity is the older, yet persistent policy issue. Quality has recently gained importance in policy agendas and is manifested through the creation of numerous quality assurance schemes worldwide.

The overall purpose of this publication is to explore whether there is scope for equity and quality to come together on higher education policy agendas and under what conditions they can do so. This exploration seems worthwhile, given the fact that quality assurance schemes are context-bound. Since these schemes commonly translate a certain vision of what constitutes quality in higher education, it could be expected that they do so with reference to the national higher education policy agenda, including equity.

Authors from countries as diverse as Australia, Brazil, India, and South Africa have been invited to discuss the relationship between equity policies and quality assurance systems in their respective higher education systems. These countries share a strong focus on equity in their higher education policies and have all recently created quality assurance systems. They thus form a promising terrain for the exploration of the interface of equity and quality assurance from a comparative point of view.

Authors were invited to discuss the issue with reference to the following points:

• the equity question from a historical and sociological perspective;

• the current policy framework for equity in higher education;• an analysis of how national quality assurance systems refl ect

equity (including main mechanisms for quality assessment, equity


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Executive summary

concerns expressed in the quality model, and equity-friendly process elements);

• an assessment of the presumed impact that the quality assurance system has had on equity in higher education in terms of institutional policies and practices.

Chapter 1 is devoted to a discussion of changing policy priorities related to equity and quality assurance. Chapters 2 to 5 present four country perspectives from South Africa, Brazil, Australia, and India. Chapter 6 presents a comparative analysis and aims specifi cally at the identifi cation of emerging patterns across the four countries. It also includes an analysis of the effects of the external quality assurance (EQA) system on policies and practices at the institutional level, as identifi ed by the authors. The chapter ends by drawing a series of conclusions for policy-makers in higher education on the conditions under which synergy can be created between equity policies and EQA systems, leading to changes in policies and practices at the institutional level.

The study identifi es the existence of a clear framework for national equity policy as a reference for decision making at the institutional level as an important condition in this respect. This is particularly true when a quality audit is the preferred mechanism of external quality assurance. When a quality audit is implemented, it commonly leads to an investigation of the coherence of national and institutional policy making, and provides an opportunity for self-assessment and peer review. When the main mechanism is accreditation, standards need to make a clear reference to equity. In order to impact institutional policies and practices, it is also necessary to provide opportunities for the follow-up of recommendations made by a quality assurance agency and put in place opportunities for capacity building at the institutional level.


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PREFACE

Higher education systems worldwide are increasingly faced with the imperatives of globalization and national competition. Nowadays, governments clearly acknowledge the strategic importance of higher education for national economic development. Indeed, higher education institutions are expected to create and transfer cutting-edge knowledge to economic actors and to the society at large. They are also expected to develop an advanced human resource base through initial higher education while providing opportunities for lifelong learning. Moreover, they are expected to perform all of these tasks in a cost-effective manner.

In addition to these more recent policy imperatives related to the economic competitiveness of societies, there are also longstanding and persistent issues on the policy agendas in many higher education institutions. One of them is equity in higher education. Indeed, concern with providing equal opportunity to access and success in higher education, independent of social origin, ethnic belonging, gender or other social characteristics, has remained a policy imperative. Equity in higher education is crucial for providing opportunities for intergenerational mobility and social cohesion within a society. It should thus be addressed, whatever the specifi c target and the particular historical and political context of a country.

Given this rather important portfolio of strategic functions played by higher education, governments over the years have found it increasingly important to intervene and steer their higher education sectors more closely in line with national priorities. In addition to preparing formalized overall policy documents or strategic plans that put forward a strategic vision for developing the higher education sector within the context of national priorities, new instruments, such as incentive funding or quality assurance schemes, have become recurrent aspects of reform initiatives in the higher education sector.

Earlier research conducted by IIEP on methodological options in quality assurance has shown that quality cannot be defi ned without reference to the context in which the higher education system is placed.


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Preface

Quality assurance schemes thus always translate a vision of what are desirable attributes of higher education. As a consequence, it seems justifi ed to explore the assumption that strong equity policies are refl ected in the frameworks and processes used by quality assurance schemes. Therefore, IIEP has carried out exploratory research on equity and external quality assurance, examining the hypothesis that quality assurance schemes can contribute to the monitoring and implementation of national equity policies.

I would like to thank my colleague, Michaela Martin, who has directed this publication by preparing a comparative framework and who also presents a comparative picture as it emerges from the publication. My thanks also go to the authors of the national articles from Australia, Antony Stella; Brazil, Dilvo Ristoff; India, Asha Gupta and Jargarnath Patil; and South Africa, Lis Lange and Mala Singh, for their valuable contributions. I also would like to thank Sylvie Didou Aupetit for her comments on the fi rst draft of this manuscript. This publication introduces the equity problematic, presents four country articles, and in a comparative synthesis discusses the conditions under which equity policies and quality assurance can come together.

Mark BrayDirector IIEP


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1. EQUITY AND QUALITY ASSURANCE: CAN THEY COME TOGETHER? AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEMATIC

Michaela Martin

1.1 Introduction

The higher education (HE) policy agenda is, in many countries, currently crowded with many issues, such as managing expansion and providing equitable access, increasing effi ciency, offering education and training relevant to the labour market and in line with national standards of quality, and being globally competitive in terms of research outputs. As part of this policy compendium for higher education, two main issues – equity and quality – form longstanding and continuous policy strands.

Of the two policies, equity is the more persistent. It has emerged strongly on policy agendas in western societies since the early 1970s when higher education systems started to expand. In most developing countries, however, it is a somewhat newer, yet increasingly important, concern. Despite major advances in the participation of formerly underprivileged groups in many countries, equity has turned into a moving target. Over time, certain equity groups, in particular women, have been able to gain increased access to higher education, while others remain underrepresented. As a consequence, the overall concern with achieving greater equity remains an issue on policy agendas, while more precise targets are changing.

Quality is a somewhat more recent issue in higher education policy agendas. Indeed, within the context of diminishing public funding for higher education and the continuous privatization of higher education provision in many countries, quality and its corollary, standards and quality assurance, have become a priority concern in numerous countries.

Within the context of overall governance reforms and the granting of increased autonomy to higher education institutions (HEIs), many countries have more recently strengthened accountability mechanisms. They have created new monitoring instruments such as indicator and


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reporting systems, which are expected to provide feedback on policy implementation. Quality assurance systems form another major mechanism towards increased accountability, and they are thus globally one of the preferred reform initiatives in higher education.

Quality assurance systems vary in many aspects of their operations, but most use a set of standards, a so-called ‘quality model’, as a reference for assessing the quality of the HE provision. Such quality models commonly represent a negotiated vision among stakeholders of the desirable attributes of quality in terms of inputs, processes, and outputs.

In most countries, the government is a dominant stakeholder of higher education, since it is a predominant funder of public HEIs. In many cases, the government is also the initiator of recently created quality assurance systems. As a consequence, it can be expected that major policy concerns, such as equity, will permeate the quality models and processes used by quality assurance agencies. If this is true, it can be assumed that quality assurance, in addition to its primary function of ensuring standards, could also be seen as a means to monitor and contribute to the implementation of other public policies on higher education agendas like equity.

This publication is concerned with the overall question of whether there is scope for equity and quality to come together on higher education policy agendas with the idea that they can mutually reinforce each other. Indeed, policy makers in higher education need to formulate coherent and effective overall policies for higher education. They are thus looking for opportunities to create synergies and a stronger consistency in their policy making. Whether such an improved consistency and mutual reinforcement is possible in the interface of equity and quality related policies will be explored in this study.

Authors from countries as diverse as Australia, Brazil, India, and South Africa have contributed papers to this publication, discussing the relationship of equity policies and their quality assurance system. These countries share a strong focus on equity in their higher education policies, and they have all recently created a quality assurance system. They thus form a promising terrain for exploration of the interface of equity and quality assurance from a comparative point of view.


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Equity and quality assurance: can they come together? An introduction to the problematic

1.2 Equity, a continuous concern on policy agendas

Despite the fact that equity is a persistent policy concern of higher education, it has more recently gained prominence in many countries. Overall, widening participation in higher education has allowed formerly underrepresented groups in higher education to gain increased access, yet many groups are still underrepresented when compared to the share that they form in the overall population of a country (Shavit and Blossfeld, 1993; Halsey, 1993; Clancy and Goastellec, 2007).

This is particularly true in many developing countries where overall gross enrolment rates (GER) remain relatively low. For instance, in most African countries, the gross enrolment rate does not exceed fi ve per cent. When social demand for higher education cannot be satisfi ed, disadvantaged social groups face comparatively more diffi culties than their relatively more advantaged counterparts in the domain of higher education.

But even in a context where mass participation has been achieved, as is the case in many OECD countries, major equity problems remain. While participation in absolute terms has made major progress overall, the relative representation of formerly underrepresented groups, such as socio-economically disadvantaged groups, ethnic minorities or immigrants, has not been achieved in many countries.

1.3 The concept of equity in higher education

The notion of equity in higher education is widespread in the fi eld’s literature. There is general agreement that equity does not mean that all must be treated exactly the same or that there should be precise equality of representation in all areas of higher education. According to Malcolm Skillbeck, it does, however, mean that tertiary education systems should be “systematically fair; considerations for all on equal terms require that inequalities, when they occur, be justifi ed by overall benefi ts and gains to all concerned” (Higher Education Authority of Ireland, 2000).

A recent report from the OECD (2008: 14) defi nes equitable tertiary education systems as those “that ensure that access to, participation in, and outcomes of tertiary education are based only on the individuals’ innate ability and study effort. They ensure that


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educational potential at tertiary level is not the result of personal and social circumstances, including factors such as socio-economic status, gender, ethnic origin, immigrant status, place of residence, age, or disability.”

The above defi nition thus emphasizes how equity relates to a process of having access and participating and succeeding in higher education. It also implies that past inequalities need to be redressed. This defi nition includes the notion of equity of access, which refers to the relative opportunities of social groups to enter into higher education. Equity of access is thus indeed one component of the equity notion, and it certainly used to be seen as the major component of equity. Equity also includes equity of outcomes, which refers to the opportunities of students to progress and successfully complete a programme.

As a consequence, equal opportunity in “tertiary education refers to the opportunities to access tertiary education, and the subsequent treatment the individual receives within tertiary education systems” (OECD, 2008).

1.4 Equity groups

In addition to the question of what equity actually means and how it relates to similar concepts, there is also the more operational question in higher education of who should be targeted by equity measures, or in other terms, who the equity groups are. Depending on the country, equity usually relates to the following traditionally disadvantaged equity groups: (1) women, (2) immigrants, (3) minorities, (4) people from low socio-economic backgrounds, (5) disabled people, and possibly a determinant based on age or place of residence (OECD, 2008: 4). Indeed, each country has its own legitimized equity categories, which themselves represent a social construction of what constitutes a disadvantaged group. For instance in some cases, proxies like place of residence are used when there is disadvantage of a geographical nature in the participation of urban and rural areas.

Indeed, countries defi ne their equity groups based on the idiosyncrasies of national history, existing ethnical diversity, and the prevailing power of social pressure groups able to bring equity issues to the political agenda (Clancy and Goastellec, 2007). Whether ethnic diversity or socio-economic status is a concern for equity differs from


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one country to the other. In addition, multiple equity concerns are frequently correlated and thus exacerbate disadvantage. Low socio-economic status may be exacerbated by low caste status and rural origin and thus provide a cumulated disadvantage. Minority status may be linked to a history of recent immigration or related to colonization where the colonizers have become powerful, as in many countries of Latin America and Australia.

1.5 Equity policies in higher education

Depending on such country contexts, equity policies in higher education differ with regard to targeted equity groups, but also with regard to their objectives and implementation strategies. In many countries, it has been and still is the current belief that an expanded and diversifi ed provision of higher education with multiple pathways between secondary and higher education is itself a strategy to create an adequate number of opportunities for participation of students with more varied needs and expectations. In a study in 15 countries in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America, Shavit et al. (2007) conclude that a combination of expansion and differentiation has led to more inclusion. Diversifi ed higher education provision can thus be a means for enhanced equal opportunity.

Bringing higher education closer to the benefi ciaries through the creation of HEIs has proved to be an effective strategy for enhanced equity in many countries. Women are frequently the fi rst equity group to benefi t from expansion and diversifi cation of the higher education provision. In most OECD countries (with the exception of Germany, Turkey, Korea, and Japan for 2005), women show higher net entry rates into university-type programmes than men, and in some cases, the participation of males raises equity concerns.

With regard to socio-economic disadvantage, research conducted in several developed countries shows that students from formerly disadvantaged backgrounds tend to concentrate on short-cycle professional higher education (Groenez et al., 2003; Martins et al., 2005), and in certain subjects more than in others (Iannelli, 2007). In many countries, such short-cycle professional programmes provide easier access to higher education and sometimes, when pathways exist, also an entry into full degree programmes.


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In some countries, it was found that equity policies needed to be better targeted at specifi c groups. Special institutions for ethnic minorities were thus created (Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand) to build an environment which is culturally closer to underrepresented groups and controlled and managed by representatives from the minorities.

Many countries have also developed special policies for physically disabled students, such as making it mandatory for higher education institutions to adapt their facilities and physical environment to the specifi c needs of physically challenged people.

• Admission policies have received special interest and much attention in the equity debate, to such a point that equity of access is often understood as a key element in the debate on equity. When entry to higher education is selective, this may affect different social groups differentially. Admission policies may be decided nationally or at the institutional level, or even jointly in some cases. This allows the potential to determine policies related to equity of access in a more or less fl exible manner.

• Affi rmative action in access has received a lot of attention and led to much discussion worldwide. The term, ‘affi rmative action’ describes policies aimed at a historically socio-politically non-dominant group, such as minorities or women, intended to promote preferential access to education and employment. Affi rmative action is usually meant to redress the effects of past and current disadvantage and to encourage institutions to provide special treatment in terms of access and study support. There is now a widespread acknowledgement that relying exclusively on academic results or so-called ‘merit’ denies access to able students and is not suffi cient to redress severe social disadvantage. Some countries with deep-rooted social inequities, such as the USA, India, and Brazil, have found it necessary to set policies of formal equality which provide special access to formerly underrepresented groups. Such policies may refer to numerical quotas or other preferential treatment, such as the acceptance of lower scores in national tests for entry into higher education. Affi rmative action policies have remained a controversial issue in countries where they are implemented. As a consequence, they are frequently challenged in court by conservative social groups.


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• Targeted funding policies are less controversial but quite effective. They provide special incentives to higher education institutions to reach out and attract specifi c equity groups. When such incentives are created for higher education institutions, which are responsible for student recruitment and selection, they can thus be expected to reach out more intensively to secondary schools, set admission policies in line with equity concerns, and develop policies and appropriate enabling environments for students to succeed in higher education.

1.6 From equity of access to equity of outcomes

More recently, there has been criticism that most equity policies used to focus on equity of access and participation. Also, most data available on equity in higher education relates to access and participation of equity groups. However, relatively little is known about their retention and completion. There is now a clear consensus that more needs to be known on equity outcomes and institutional efforts in this respect (OECD, 2008).

Some countries, Australia being a case in point, have put in place special policies to monitor institutional equity efforts, requesting regular statistical reporting from higher education institutions. National monitoring of equity policies is particularly important in decentralized contexts where higher education institutions determine their admission policies and manage student recruitment. Such statistical reporting allows governments to either compare the performance of institutions or otherwise establish whether and what progress has been made in the achievement of national targets. This, however, does not provide for an insider’s view on institutional policies and practices of higher education institutions to implement their equity policies in line with national initiatives.

1.7 External quality assurance: does it relate to equity concerns?

In higher education policy, as in other public policies, there is a noticeable increase in the concern with accountability and the monitoring of policy implementation at the institutional level (Borden and Bottrill, 1994). In addition to the development of monitoring instruments, such as indicator systems or supervision visits, more and


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more countries have also put in place mechanisms for external quality assurance1 (EQA). They are commonly a response to the need to ensure certain levels of quality and monitor quality standards as an answer to an increasingly diverse and sometimes privatized provision of higher education. Such mechanisms are also a response to the perceived need to help institutions to improve the existing provision of higher education or to provide national institutions with a label that helps them to be more competitive in the international higher education market. In an increasingly international world, they also act as a means to ensure the broader public of the value of higher education credentials and facilitate recognition of qualifi cations internationally.

Systems of external quality assurance may be composed of different mechanisms.2 The most common is an institutional review or assessment (sometimes called evaluation), which is an assessment of the functioning and the overall performance of a higher education institution conducted with a view to identifying its strengths and weaknesses. The expectation is that the results of assessment will feed into ongoing management processes and help to improve decision-making derived from analysis and evidence.

Another mechanism, frequently part of an EQA system, is a quality audit. It does not assess quality or performance as such, but rather the quality of existing quality assurance mechanisms. It is commonly used to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the quality assurance mechanisms adopted by an institution. This can help to monitor and improve the activities and services of a subject, a programme or the whole institution.

And fi nally, accreditation is the most widely used method of EQA and has recently been introduced in many higher education systems as a mechanism for quality control. It can represent either a transformation of other existing methods of EQA or an entirely new method. Based on assessment and evaluation, accreditation makes an explicit judgment as to whether a programme or institution meets particular pre-defi ned

1. A look at the membership register of the International Network of Quality Assurance Agencies (INQAAHE) demonstrates that in September 2008 there were altogether 208 members from 79 countries (www.inqaahe.org/index.cfm?area=content&action=contentselect&menuid=212).

2. For a discussion of basic terms and defi nitions of quality assurance and accreditation related terms, please refer to Vlasceanu, Grünberg, and Parlea, 2007 and the INQAAHE glossary:

www.qualityresearchinternational.com/glossary/


http://www.inqaahe.org/index.cfm?area=content&action=contentselect&menuid=212

http://www.inqaahe.org/index.cfm?area=content&action=contentselect&menuid=212

http://www.qualityresearchinternational.com/glossary

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quality standards. These standards may be either a set of minimum standards, standards of high quality or excellence, or related to the institution’s own purposes. Accreditation therefore always involves some kind of benchmarking and a set of existing quality criteria. It is thus the only method within the quality assurance spectrum that makes an explicit judgment about the degree to which an institution or programme actually meets pre-determined standards.

The general expectation is that accreditation against minimum (or threshold) standards provides assurance of acceptable programmes or institutions. When it is also linked to the authorization to operate, it is usually called licensing. Some systems also apply high quality standards. This makes it possible to differentiate between those programmes or institutions that meet threshold standards (and are thus acceptable) and those that are excellent. Some systems also accredit institutions or programmes solely against their own criteria. However, these are becoming rare, unless they can also show that their criteria meet the basic standards for the profession or for higher education in general (Martin and Stella, 2007).

1.8 The topic of this research

As mentioned in the introduction, this study will explore whether there is scope for equity and quality to come together on reform agendas for an improved consistency in higher education policy-making. More precisely, the question will be tackled whether the assumption holds that EQA mechanisms are a tool to monitor and implement national equity policies.

This assumption relies on two observations. First, quality assurance systems are most frequently based on a process that involves a combination of self-study and external peer assessment. They are thus an instrument for institutional self-enquiry and self-regulation, as well as a tool for public accountability. As a consequence, they can be a particularly powerful tool for inducing change at the institutional level, as they are for the reporting on institutional policies and practices. When compared with more traditional mechanisms for accountability like performance indicators or annual reporting, quality assurance can be expected to enter more easily into the “private lives” of higher education institutions (Trow, 1975).


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Second, in the longstanding discussion over what quality in higher education really is, there is a convergence in the belief that quality is not a given, but rather needs to be defi ned in relation to a particular context (Harvey and Green, 1993; Green, 1994; Woodhouse, 2006). While in the past, quality was to a large extent defi ned by the academic profession and negotiated inside higher education institutions, other stakeholders want to take part in this discussion. Since in most countries government is the dominant stakeholder of higher education, it can be expected that major policy concerns, such as equity, will permeate quality models and processes used by quality assurance agencies. From the above discussion on the importance of equity policies on the higher education policy agenda, it can also be expected that those countries with strong equity concerns and policies in place would have developed quality models and quality assurance processes which relate to national equity concerns.

The relationship of EQA systems and quality enhancement has been studied already (Westerheijden, 2006). However, there has been little examination of the relationship between EQA systems and other public policies for higher education, such as equity policies. This study is thus an exploratory attempt to study the relationship of EQA and national equity policies in a selected number of case countries with a view to gaining new insights into possible synergies between both.

More precisely, this poses the following questions to each of the chosen countries, which are directly concerned with knowing whether quality assurance can be seen as an effective instrument for the monitoring and implementation of national equity policies:

• To what extent do quality models and quality assessment procedures developed by EQA systems of the four countries address aspects of equity and social relevance?

• Is there any evidence that EQAs have affected institutional policies and practices in the area of equity?As mentioned earlier, monitoring systems have become an

increasingly important tool for system governance in higher education. Monitoring systems have been put in place in many countries (OECD, 2008) in exchange for increased autonomy of higher education institutions for strengthened accountability. Most monitoring devices, however, are quantitative, since they request HEIs to report on


33


quantitative aspects of their performance. A related question of this study is thus whether EQA systems can provide qualitative information on institutional policies and practices of HEIs in the area of social relevance and equity.

1.9 The choice of countriesCountries were chosen on the basis of two basic conditions: a

strong reference to equity issues on their current policy agendas and a recently created system of external quality assurance. The following four countries comply with these basic conditions: Australia, Brazil, India, and South Africa.

Countries were also chosen from diverse development backgrounds. It was decided, in particular, to choose countries that represent variety with regard to two basic features of the higher education system: the extent of overall system coverage in terms of gross enrolment rate (GER) and the extent of privatization in terms of the share of enrolments in the private sector. Both features could be expected to lead to variation in the overall orientation of equity policies as well as their implementation strategies, since equity problems can be expected to be more prominent in countries with low access and high share of private enrolment.

In terms of gross enrolment rates, it was decided to cover three categories of countries: 1. massifi ed higher education systems (more than 35 per cent GER);2. reasonably developed HE systems (between 15 and 35 per cent

GER);3. modestly developed HE systems (15 per cent or less GER).

Australia represents a developed country with a massifi ed higher education sector with an overall GER as high as 72 per cent in 2005. Brazil has been able to make a quantum leap, moving from 14 to 24 per cent GER between 1999 and 2005, and thus forms part of what can be called a reasonably developed higher education sector. With a 15 per cent and 11 per cent GER in 2005, both South Africa and India have modestly developed higher education sectors. In addition, both countries have made only modest progress, with a 1 per cent increase between 1999 and 2005.


34


Australia has a strong predominant public higher education system with a negligible private sector enrolment of 2 per cent. In South Africa, the share of private enrolment is in the order of 10 per cent, whereas in Brazil, the private sector has been traditionally strong and is largely predominant with an overall share of enrolments of 70 per cent. In India, private higher education used to be relatively small but is rapidly progressing, from 59 per cent in 2000/2001 to 64 per cent in 2005/2006. The high share of private enrolment poses an immediate challenge to countries concerned with equity. It can be expected that private providers, in particular for-profi t providers, tend to be less sensitive to equity than public schools. Also, the government will have less steering capacity vis-à-vis the private sector, given the fact that governmental funding may only be minor.

Table 1.1 Comparative statistics on the higher education sector of the four countries

Total enrolment (2005)

GER (1999) GER (2005) Percentage of private enrolments (2005)

Australia 1,015,060 66% 72% 2%Brazil 4,275,027 14% 24%* 70%India 11,722,296 10% 11% 64%**

South Africa 735,073 14% 15% 10%***

* The data presented in UNESCO, 2007 in Global Education Digest for Brazil is provisional.** Calculated from Gupta and Patil (2008: 5) for the year 2005/2006.*** The share of enrolment in private higher education is approximate for 2001 and has been calculated

from data discussed in Mabizela, 2006.Source: UNESCO, 2007; Global Education Digest, 2007.

Chosen countries for this study also represent a variety in their equity problematic and the way they respond to it in their higher education policies. Australia, as a country of immigration, is confronted with several historically based and more recently emerging equity issues. It also has a long-standing experience of equity policies in higher education with changing focuses over the years. At present, Australia has a particularly strong concern with establishing enhanced social equity for the aboriginal population and Torres Strait Islanders.

India also faces a deeply rooted tradition of caste and disadvantaged tribes. It is certainly the country with the longest experience of affi rmative action in the public service, such as reservation (quota systems) for the so-called ‘backwards’ castes and tribes, including in


35


higher education. Despite this tradition, equity concerns are still very present on the public policy agenda, but remain controversial.

In South Africa, current equity policies are a response to the history of apartheid and, as a consequence, to a longstanding deprivation of the black and coloured segments of South African society. The transition from the apartheid regime to a democratic society forms the context in which equity policies follow ethnic lines and form the background for the aim of social transformation.

And fi nally in Brazil, due to the history of colonization and slavery, ethnicity plays a very strong role in access to higher education and thus in the distribution of opportunities in life. In Brazil, the move from an elitist system to a system providing increased quality access is seen as the major pillar of national equity policy.

The following articles will demonstrate in what way the four countries are responsive to their own history and have put in place policies to redress inequity and social injustice through their higher education policies. As will be seen, each article takes a specifi c focus, which demonstrates the particular idiosyncrasies of each country’s historical context and policy background.

All four countries share one commonality: their quality assurance schemes are of relatively recent origin. The Indian National Assessment and Accreditation Council represents the oldest system among the four, since it was created in 1994. The Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) was only begun in 2000. The Brazilian National Higher Education Evaluation system (SINAES), though built on an earlier system of institutional evaluation, started its current operations in 2003. The South African Higher Education Quality Council is the youngest agency with a start in operations only in 2004. Given their relative recent dates of creation, it is likely that the present systems also refl ect current national equity policies.

1.10 The authors and the framework for the preparation of the papers

The following publication is a collection of four papers that have been prepared by both researchers on higher education policy and quality assurance practitioners of the countries studied. Their authors


36


have an intimate knowledge of the national policy background and quality assurance practices of their respective countries.

Given the exploratory nature of the study, there was no attempt to provide authors with detailed guidelines on the expected content of their papers. Indeed, authors were encouraged to put emphasis in their case study on particularities of both the country situation and the quality assurance system. They were, however, invited to provide information on the following items:

• the equity problematic in their respective country;• the policy framework for equity in higher education;• an analysis of how the national quality assurance systems refl ects

equity in terms of the quality model and QA processes; • an assessment of the presumed impact that the QA system has had

on equity in higher education in the country.

To relate to the different questions that should guide their analyses, authors were invited to draw on national statistics, descriptive documentary sources relating to the national QA system, or the wealth of information generated through quality assurance processes.

In some cases, our research has triggered specifi c surveys with the aim of assessing how equity concerns expressed by the EQA system are refl ected in institutional policies and practices. Such surveys were of course conducted with a view to assessing the presumed impact of QA systems on equity. The use of documentary resources, such as self-evaluation reports or external assessments, has helped to make available more information on the issue at the country level. As such, it is hoped that this project will make a contribution to the knowledge on the status of equity in higher education in the participating countries.


37

2. EQUITY ISSUES IN QUALITY ASSURANCE IN SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION

Lis Lange and Mala Singh

2.1 Introduction

This paper outlines the ways in which the quality assurance system developed by the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) of the Council on Higher Education conceptualizes and takes into account issues of equity in South African higher education. The paper takes as its point of departure the historical roots of equity in South African higher education. It points out the challenges that the legacy of apartheid poses to the achievement of equity of outcomes in higher education and the ways in which policy making has tackled different dimensions of equity. Against this backdrop, the paper analyses the frameworks, systems, and approaches developed by the HEQC in order to link equity and quality. The paper concludes with a number of refl ections regarding the diffi culties of including issues of social justice in the design of a quality assurance system in a manner that is intellectually credible and methodologically practicable.

2.2 Contextualizing the issue of equity in South Africa

In 1994, on the eve of the fi rst democratic elections in the country, the South African higher education system consisted of 36 institutions, the categorization and organization of which had been shaped by the logic of the apartheid state.

During the 1980s, the apartheid government divided South Africa into the Republic of South Africa, which consisted of the largest part of the current territory of South Africa and four so-called independent homelands within which all black South Africans were supposed to exercise their political and other rights. The latter had become citizens of one of the four ‘homelands’ (or Bantustans) and therefore aliens without rights in the (white) Republic of South Africa. The 1984 Constitution set out a form of government which was designed to


38


further disenfranchise blacks. The national parliament was divided into three chambers: House of Assembly (white voters), House of Representatives (representatives of the coloured3 population), and the House of Delegates (representatives of the population of Indian origin). Black people did not have representation in parliament despite constituting the majority of the population of the country.

The 1984 constitution distinguished between control over matters that were regarded as ‘own affairs’ (specifi c to racial/cultural groups), and ‘general affairs’, which affected the whole of society. In the light of this distinction, education was considered as an ‘own affair’ for white, coloured and Indian people. Thus, the respective Houses of Parliament were responsible for the education affairs of these three population groups. The education of the black population, on the contrary, was considered a ‘general affair’, and as such, it depended on the Department of Education and Training. The administrative structure of higher education imposed by the 1984 constitution completed the segregation of higher education institutions initiated by the Extension of University Education Act of 1959 by designating each higher education institution as reserved for a specifi c race group. In 1985, 19 higher education institutions had been designated as exclusively white, 2 exclusively coloured, 2 exclusively for Indians, and 6 exclusively for Africans, thus refl ecting the racial divisions created by apartheid policy. The legislative framework did not allow for students to be enrolled in an institution reserved for another group, except through special permit and other discretionary systems.

The racial stratifi cation of the higher education system was supplemented by other forms of differentiation which altogether gave the South African public higher education system its shape, identity, and educational climate. Institutions were funded differently and from different budgets, with a range of fee structures and affordability levels, and with few institutions able to attract donor funding. Institutions were differentiated in terms of their mission, the curriculum they could offer, and therefore the type and level of qualifi cation that they could confer. This is evident, for example, in the differences between universities and ‘technikons’. The latter were institutions dedicated to technical 3. In the southern African context, ‘coloured’ means of mixed heritage which can include black, white and

Malay.


39

Equity issues in quality assurance in South African higher education

vocational education and were not allowed to confer degrees until 1995. Another marker of differentiation was the language of instruction used. Thus, universities were either English or Afrikaans, with an eventual move towards bilingualism at some of the Afrikaans universities as student demographics changed. Not one of the African languages was offi cially recognized as a medium of instruction. Staff profi les at the various institutions also differed in respect of qualifi cation levels, expertise, capacity, and research activity. Differences in institutional cultures were also part of institutional identities and values, relating broadly to the political origins and trajectories of the different institutions. These layers of differences were constitutive of the South African higher education landscape, formally consisting of the following in 1994:

• ten historically white universities of which six were Afrikaans-language and four were English-language, located in the Republic of South Africa;

• seven historically white technikons located in the Republic of South Africa;

• six black universities in the Republic of South Africa: four reserved for Africans, and controlled by the Department of Education and Training, one for coloured students, and another for students of Indian origin;

• four black universities, located in the homelands;• fi ve black technikons: two controlled by the Department of

Education and Training; three established within the homelands and two controlled by departments in the tri-cameral parliament;

• one distance education university, and one distance education technikon.

Each type of institution had a particular relationship with the state and had its academic activities informed by a different political sub-project. White universities were granted considerable administrative and fi nancial powers, with the state providing most of the required funding. Their graduates took their place among the political and economic elites responsible for managing a highly unequal society. Black universities were established to produce the teachers and civil servants required by the black schooling system and the segregated


40


civil service, whether in the homelands or in the Republic of South Africa. This, to a large extent, determined their institutional raison d’être and shaped their academic offerings. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, most of the black universities became sites of anti-apartheid struggles, with student militancy, boycotts, state closures of institutions, and increasing police and military intrusions, all of which further aggravated the institutional conditions for the exercise of core academic functions, especially in respect of teaching and learning.

The differentiated resourcing of the various categories of institutions is an important factor in grasping the full import of the political and educational legacies of apartheid. The white universities in the Republic of South Africa were funded according to the South African Post-Secondary Education (SAPSE) formula implemented in 1982. The formula was highly complicated and provided subsidies for students based on full-time equivalent enrolled students and full-time equivalent successful students. These students were distributed in different subsidy groups, depending on whether they were enrolled for natural sciences or humanities courses. A further way of weighting the subsidy was to allocate values to enrolments according to the course level at which students enrolled. The formula also included 10 cost units covering staff, supplies and building renewals, and library books and periodicals. The rest of the formula was made up of ratios to calculate cost units in the different disciplines. The subsidy was calculated as a difference between the costs of education and the fees paid by students. Finally, the results of these calculations were adjusted by a factor that took the size of the national budget into account (Steyn and De Villiers, 2006: 38-43).

This formula worked at historically white institutions, which had infrastructure in working order and middle-class students able to afford the fees set by institutions. When at the end of the 1980s the same formula was applied to historically black institutions, a new set of problems emerged that are a partial explanation for the vicious circle of student bad debt, student protests, and the academic quality shortcomings that affl icted these institutions during the democratic transition. Most of these historically black institutions were located in rural and peri-urban areas, where the costs of running an institution were higher and academic infrastructure chronically under-equipped. Further, as


41


Bunting indicates, the worst disadvantage experienced by these institutions was the high cost of an academic staff complement which had very limited capacity (Cloete et al., 2002: 120).

By 1988, all 29 universities and technikons in the Republic of South Africa were operating within this funding formula. Between 1986 and 1994, government appropriations for higher education in the Republic of South Africa nearly tripled. However, as enrolments started expanding, the state found itself in a position in which it could not afford the formula funding that student growth had produced (Cloete et al., 2002: 123). The shortfall in government subsidies had to be covered by the universities and technikons themselves. For many institutions, the easiest way out of this situation was to pass along cuts in the government subsidy to student fees.

Given the fact that the majority of students who were enrolled at historically black institutions came from poor socio-economic backgrounds, these institutions were soon in debt and never able to recover the full extent of the debt. The problem posed by the application of the funding formula to historically black institutions in a context of student expansion and negligible real increase in state appropriations for higher education was put into sharper relief after 1994 with the inclusion of the homeland universities into the new Republic of South Africa and the existing funding formula. The funding of these homeland institutions had been much higher than that received by the institutions in the apartheid Republic of South Africa. In 1995, they were given fi ve years to adapt their budgets to the lower levels of state funding, a challenge that would further weaken attention to and resources for quality requirements in relation to teaching and learning and other core functions.

During the early 1990s, as the process of political negotiation between the African National Congress (ANC) and the National Party started, the forces associated with the liberation struggle engaged in heightened discussions about different approaches to education (including higher education) and how they should refl ect principles of equity and redress that had guided the liberation struggle (Wolpe, 1992). The insertion of South African higher education into a globalizing world driven by the imperatives of effi ciency, productivity, and


42


competitiveness and the potential tensions between these imperatives and the social justice priorities of the anti-apartheid struggle were a dimension that was soon to enter the debates on restructuring higher education. One aspect of the early debate was focused on the duality of the higher education system, broadly characterized as historically white and historically black institutions, and on the conception of the latter as labouring under ‘institutional disadvantage’ and, therefore, in need of institutional equity and redress. This specifi c claim, which took the equity and redress debate beyond the expected categories of race and gender as applied to disadvantaged individuals, was not addressed directly in the new policy dispensation of the incoming democratic government but rather indirectly through a drastic reconfi guration of the entire higher education landscape. In 2001, in the government’s National Plan for Higher Education, the Minister of Education set out details for the restructuring of the higher education system based on mergers, incorporations, and re-designations. One of the declared purposes of the reform was to undo the effects on the higher education system of the “geopolitical imagination of the apartheid planners” (Asmal, 2001). The current reconfi gured South African higher education system consists of 23 institutions, designated as universities, universities of technology, and comprehensives and funded through a new common formula that has replaced the 1982 formula.

Redress and equity claims based on institutional disadvantage were rendered more complex by the reconfi guration of the higher education landscape through mergers, incorporations and redesignations and by demographic changes that led to majority black student populations at almost all higher education institutions in the country. However, some version of these claims may be resurfacing in differently argued approaches to the issue of institutional redress, given that some historically disadvantaged institutions remain intact (in the new landscape) despite their redesignation and continue to face formidable academic and governance challenges in a restructured landscape. Others fi nd themselves in mergers that are experiencing resource problems, required academic and administrative capacities, the creation of new academic identities as well as the construction of stable academic environments for the pursuit of the core functions.


43


Rapidly changing demographics and little changing academic trends: the challenges of legacy

In 1990, total enrolment in the public higher education system was 395,700 students. In 1994, it was 525,000, of which 47 per cent were white students, 40 per cent African, 7 per cent Indian and 6 per cent coloured. By 2005, enrolment had increased to 737,471, of which 60.9 per cent were African, 7.4 per cent Indian, 6.28 per cent coloured, and 25.2 per cent white. In fi fteen years, the proportion of enrolment of black students, and particularly of black African students, in the higher education system has improved remarkably. Similarly, gender distribution has also improved from 43 per cent female and 57 per cent male students in 1994 to 54.54 per cent female and 45.45 per cent male students in 2005 (Cloete et al., 2002: 150; Council on Higher Education (CHE), 2004: 62; DoE, 2006: 31).

An analysis of the distribution of student enrolment by race across different disciplinary fi elds shows some of the limitations that the expansion of access has had in bringing about greater equity in the South African higher education system. In 1993, 57 per cent of all student enrolment was in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), 24 per cent in Business and Commerce (BC), and only 19 per cent in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET). This distribution is unsurprising given the characteristics of the higher education system explained above. In 2001, the National Plan for Higher Education (NPHE) set targets for system level enrolment which consisted of enrolment at 40 per cent in the HSS and 30 per cent each for BC and SET. By 2005, the distribution of headcount enrolments at system level had almost reached the set target: 42.3 per cent HSS, 29.1 per cent BC and 28.6 per cent SET (DoE, 2006: 30). However, these fi gures disguise the fact that African and particularly black African students still constitute the minority of the enrolment in SET and BC.

An even grimmer picture emerges from the calculation of the participation of different population groups in higher education. The percentage of the population between 20 and 24 years old in each group that is actually enrolled in higher education (HE) is shown in Table 2.1.


44


Table 2.1 Participation rates by race group* in 1993 and 2004Black Coloured Indian White Average

1993 9% 13% 40% 70% 17%2004 12% 12% 50% 61% 16%* The categories of population in different countries are those offi cially used within those countries.Source: Cloete et al., 2002: 151 and Scott et al., 2007: 10.

The fi gures in Table 2.1 indicate not only a lower overall participation rate in 2004 as compared to 1997 but also a very small increase in the participation of the black group which constitutes more than 90 per cent of the country’s population. Such a low rate and pattern of participation in higher education poses huge challenges for the general production of the high level human resources required to achieve the social and economic growth priorities set for the country. The pattern of participation in higher education also highlights the magnitude of the social justice interventions that are required in order to put targeted equity and redress strategies in place so as to increase the participation rates of the majority population.

An analysis of graduation and throughput rates in the higher education system completes the picture of the challenges faced in South Africa when it comes to achieving equity of outcomes. In 2006, the Department of Education (DoE) fi nalized the fi rst cohort study undertaken since 1994. The study was done of the 2000 cohort and shows that the South African higher education system is hugely ineffi cient. Moreover, throughput rates are not only poor in general but are highly differentiated in terms of race. Table 2.2 shows that only 30 per cent of the students enrolled in 2000 had graduated within fi ve years; 14 per cent were still enrolled after fi ve years; and, more disconcertingly, 56 per cent had dropped out (Scott et al., 2007: 12).

When this data is further disaggregated in terms of fi elds of study, race, and level of study, the failure of the higher education system to successfully address issues of access or manage the relationship between equity and quality becomes even more apparent. Table 2.3 shows graduation after fi ve years in a professional Bachelor degree in four different discipline areas, all of which are in high demand in the labour market. As can be seen, not only too few students fi nish their degrees on time, but the difference between the white and black student


45


completion rates are very noticeable. A similar situation can be seen in Table 2.4, this time in relation to the general academic fi rst Bachelor degrees. It is important to realize that in Tables 2.3 and 2.4, the last column shows how much faster white student completion rates are. For example, in Table 2.3, white students’ completion rates are 2.3 times faster than that of their black counterparts. Table 2.5 shows the same problem in relation to non-degree qualifi cations, in this case the difference between the completion rates of black and white students is not as marked, but it is still a source of concern.

Table 2.2 2000 cohort intake: all fi rst-time entering studentsInstitutions* Graduation within

5 yearsStill registeredafter 5 years

Left without graduating

Universities excluding UNISA** 50% 12% 38%UNISA 14% 27% 59%All universities 38% 17% 45%Technikons excluding TSA 32% 10% 58%Technikon South Africa (TSA) 2% 12% 85%All technikons 23% 11% 66%All institutions 30% 14% 56%* The pre-merger institutional categories are used here because they applied when the 2000 and 2001

cohorts entered the sector. Notwithstanding the changes in the institutional confi guration, the sector-wide performance analysis remains valid since the same qualifi cation types are still offered.

** Figures for the University of the North (now Limpopo) are not available.Source: Scott et al., 2007: 12.

Table 2.3 Graduation after fi ve years in professional fi rst B-degrees, by selected CESM group and race: fi rst-time entering students excluding UNISA*

CESM Black White Ratio w/bBusiness/Management 33% 83% 2.5Engineering 32% 64% 2.0Law 21% 48% 2.3Languages 26% 65% 2.5* UNISA is the dedicated distance university in South Africa and its throughput rates are much lower

than the average for the system. Source: Scott et al., 2007: 16.


46


Table 2.4 Graduation after fi ve years in general academic fi rst B-degrees, by selected CESM group and race: fi rst-time entering students excluding UNISA

CESM Black White Ratio w/bBusiness/management 33% 72% 2.2Life and physical sciences 31% 63% 2.0Mathematical sciences 35% 63% 1.8Social sciences 34% 68% 2.0Languages 32% 68% 2.1Source: Scott et al., 2007: 16.

Table 2.5 outlines graduate output patterns at the technikons.

Table 2.5 Graduation after fi ve years in National Diplomas, by selected CESM group and race: fi rst-time entering students excluding TSA

CESM Black White RatioBusiness/Management 31% 44% 1.4Computer Science 33% 43% 1.3Engineering 16% 28% 1.8Social Services/Public Administration 29% 23% 0.8Source: Scott et al., 2007: 14.

The grave signifi cance of these fi gures can hardly be exaggerated. As Scott et al. (2007) indicate, the analysis of the selected fi elds of study and qualifi cations at contact universities shows that in almost all cases, the completion rates for black students are less than half of that of white students. In the case of technikons, where the majority of students are black, the difference in the completion rate between black and white students is less marked. However, given that the average completion rate is particularly low in technikons, this also represents a loss of black students to the system. As Scott (2007) aptly points out, these fi gures negate the gains made in relation to increased black enrolments in the HE system.

The reasons for poor performance are many, straddling dimensions that are socio-economic, pedagogical, and cultural. Among the most important sources of the problem are the following:

• Poor students are often faced with very diffi cult survival challenges. Many receiving fi nancial aid share the funds with their families


47


due to high levels of unemployment and conditions of severe poverty in the country. Often student aid is insuffi cient, and students cannot afford accommodation, books, and so on and therefore have to work while studying. A lack of suffi cient funds often prevents students from completing their degrees, but it is not unusual for students to have to leave university in order to take up familial responsibilities.

• There is poor articulation between high school and higher education which results in the inability of students to respond to the cognitive leap required of them, especially those who come from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds where the quality of schooling often suffers through lack of suffi cient resources and appropriately trained and experienced teachers.

• The educational processes at universities are largely based on assumptions about learning pertinent to the traditional student profi le (white and relatively economically advantaged), to which the new students coming into higher education do not conform. These are assumptions that many academic staff are often not able or prepared to change. This includes the problem of language acquisition, as universities teach either in English or Afrikaans, and no African language is used as a medium of instruction at universities.

• Institutional cultures at most institutions are not supportive enough of the new type of students entering higher education.

• There is a lack of professional training in the area of teaching and learning for most academics. Generally, teaching among academic staff is regarded as a matter of ‘common sense’ and good disciplinary knowledge, without any pedagogical underpinnings (Scott et al., 2007; CHE, 2008).

Addressing most of these issues requires national and institutional policy frameworks, as well as human resources and funding, but more fundamentally, they require a common set of parameters for understanding the problem and multiple strategies to address them. Like most other areas of social policy, higher education cannot be seen independently of broader national socio-economic policies and development challenges. The next section will look into some of the conceptual and political issues defi ning the theory and practice of equity in South Africa.


48


2.3 The policy and legislative status of equity in South African higher education

This section looks at the relevant policy frameworks and conceptions pertaining to equity and how they have been translated into plans, strategies and targets at the system level in higher education.

The constitution of equity as an issue in contemporary South African political discourse can be linked strongly with the Freedom Charter (1955), regarded as a founding document for the ANC and its allies. Key historical, political, and policy steps along the way include the following:

• the Declaration of People’s Education in the early 1980s;• the formation of the National Education Crisis Committee in

1988;• the creation of the National Education Policy Initiative in 1991;• the ANC Policy Framework for Education and Training of 1994

which fl ags redress for historically disadvantaged constituencies (Davenport and Saunders, 2000: 677-678);

• the Reconstruction and Development Programme (ANC, 1994) which identifi ed principles for improving the quality of life of all South Africans through targeting, for example, the redress of legacies like racially based and massively unequal income levels.

National policy processes from 1994 onwards also refl ect the centrality of equity and redress concerns in policy initiatives and legislation as seen, for example, in the following:

• the setting-up of the National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE) and its recommendations for higher education reform (1995-1996);

• the SAQA Act of 1995 which made provision for a national qualifi cations framework to facilitate educational access and mobility;

• the Constitution of the country (1996) which contains the injunction to create a society based on social justice in addition to democratic values and respect for human rights;

• the Education White Paper 3: ‘A Programme for the Transformation of Higher Education’ (1997);


49


• the Higher Education Act (1997); • the National Plan on Higher Education (2001) which sets out

concrete implementation proposals and targets aimed at restoring various imbalances within higher education.

The policy-making process in higher education that beginning in 1994 took equity and redress from its more symbolic formulations to an implementation plan deserves particular reference here. In 1995, a National Commission on Higher Education was appointed by President Mandela in order to develop a framework for the transformation of South African higher education so that it could contribute to the reconstruction of society. In its report, the commission found, among the many defi ciencies of the higher education system, the following:

• It perpetuated the inequitable distribution of access and opportunity for students along race, gender, class and geographic lines.

• Discriminatory practices had limited the access of black and women students into the fi elds of science and technology, exacerbating the mismatch between higher education’s output and the needs of the economy.

• There was a tendency among higher education institutions to replicate the ethnic, racial and gender divisions of the wider society (NCHE: 1.2.1).

In the face of this diagnosis, the NCHE identifi ed increased participation, both in terms of an expansion of access and the increased ability of higher education institutions to meet the developmental imperatives of the country, as one of the demands to which the higher education system had to respond. Thus, for the NCHE, one of the features of a transformed higher education system was that it would “Ensure access to a full spectrum of educational and learning opportunities to as wide a range as possible of the population, irrespective of race, colour, gender or age” (NCHE: 1.3.1).

The Education White Paper 3 (WP) was based on the NCHE analysis of the state of the higher education system and situated the transformation of higher education within the broader process of the political, social, and economic transition of South Africa, which included “redistributive policies aimed at equity” (DoE, 1997, 1.7). The WP indicated that the transformation of the higher education


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system and its institutions required both increased and broadened participation. In order to do this, the system had to overcome historically determined patterns of fragmentation, inequality and ineffi ciency and “increase access for blacks, women, disabled and mature students, and generate new curricula, fl exible models of teaching and learning, including modes of delivery, to accommodate a larger and more diverse population” (DoE, 1997, 1.13).

The WP went further and singled out equity as one of the guiding principles for the process of the transformation of higher education. As the WP put it:

The principle of equity requires fair opportunities both to enter higher education programmes and to succeed in them. Applying the principle of equity implies, on the one hand, a critical identifi cation of existing inequalities which are the product of policies, structures and practices based on racial, gender, disability and other forms of discrimination and disadvantage, and on the other, a programme of transformation with a view to redress. Such transformation involves not only abolishing all existing forms of unjust differentiation, but also measures of empowerment, including fi nancial support to bring about equal opportunity for individuals and institutions (DoE, 1997, 1.18).

The defi nition of equity proposed in the WP requires the identifi cation of inequalities and their redress. The practical implications of the application of the principle for both higher education institutions and the state included targeted distribution of public funds, mobilization of private resources, development of equity goals, and addressing the problems of articulation between apartheid-impoverished schooling and the higher education system in order to ensure equity of outcomes.

Since the inception of the new democratic dispensation, funding has been one of the major obstacles to the further expansion of the higher education system and its ability to produce the numbers, types, and quality of graduates required by the society and economy. Higher education in South Africa is subsidized by the state, but it is not free. Therefore, one precondition for expanded access within a framework of equity and redress was to facilitate the entrance into higher education of students from working class and poor rural backgrounds who could


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not afford the costs of education. Based on a recommendation of the National Commission on Higher Education, the Minister of Education created the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) through Act 56 in 1999. The Act established this scheme based on the experience of its predecessor, the Tertiary Education Fund of South Africa, which operated between 1991 and 1996. Between 1999 and 2005, the funds distributed by the NSFAS grew from 21 million to 1.2 billion rands4 and the number of awards that were granted grew from 7,420 in 1999 to 120,000 in 2005. In other words, in 2005 approximately 16 per cent of total student enrolment was funded by NSFAS. However, given the number of students from low- or no-income households enrolled in the higher education system, the dramatic expansion of NSFAS remains inadequate to respond to the overwhelming needs and demands for funding.5

In terms of enrolment, by 2001 the expansion of the higher education system had taken a different form from that envisaged by the NCHE. For a number of reasons, the increase in student enrolment had been well below the NCHE projections and had taken the form of an expansion of black student enrolment at historically white institutions, particularly Afrikaans-medium institutions (Cloete et al., 2002; CHE, 2004: 63). Although the shifts in student enrolment stabilized by 1999, with most historically black institutions recovering their headcount enrolment, the specifi c form that the expansion of access took during the period 1994-1999 gave the higher education system a shape and size which did not necessarily respond to some of the goals of the WP. Moreover, in terms of the availability of resources, the funding of higher education as a proportion of the GDP had decreased from 0.77 per cent in 1995-1996 to 0.73 per cent in 2001 and was expected to be further reduced to 0.68 per cent in 2003-2004 (NPHE, 2001: 8). The state was not going to be able to fund the massifi cation of higher education as envisaged by the NCHE. In a

4. This represents a growth from approximately US$3.5 million to US$190 million according to UN offi cial exchange rates for January, 1999 and December 2005 respectively. Following UN usage, here 1 billion is equivalent to 1,000 million.

5. Recent research conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council based on seven higher education institutions indicates that 70 per cent of the students who leave without completing their degrees belong to low income households and that the majority of these students are African.


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context of reduced resources, a far more managed and planned approach to the achievement of equity and development was deemed necessary.

Against this background, the Minister of Education at the time developed and implemented a National Plan for Higher Education (NPHE) in 2001. The plan was introduced as an implementation framework designed to give effect to the vision of transformation articulated in the White Paper 3. The plan established targets for the size and shape of the higher education system, which included not only the overall growth and participation rates expected by government but also provided for directives in relation to institutional and programme offerings and effi ciency goals which were desirable in the system.

As indicated earlier, the NPHE focused on equity and redress as applicable to social constituencies. It dealt with the issue of institutional equity and redress through a restructuring of the higher education landscape through mergers and incorporations, which reduced the pre-1994 landscape from 36 higher education institutions to 23. The NPHE based two of its fi ve strategic objectives on social equity,6 producing graduates with the skills and competencies needed by the country and ensuring that student and staff profi les refl ected the demography of the country and that the race and gender of graduates refl ected the profi le of the enrolments (NPHE, 2001: 16, 35). Both objectives were given expression in a series of priorities for which the Ministry developed specifi c strategies. Among these priorities were the following:

• to increase the participation rate in higher education (this was set at 20 per cent to be achieved by 2010);

• to increase the number of graduates through improved effi ciency and to link the improvement of effi ciency to improvements in quality;

• to broaden the social base of higher education by increasing access for workers, professionals and adult learners;

• to produce graduates with appropriate skills;

6. The other three strategic objectives were ensuring diversity in the organizational form and institutional landscape of the higher education system through programme and mission differentiation; sustaining current research strengths and promoting the kinds of research required to meet national development needs; and promoting and fostering collaboration between higher education institutions at regional level and reducing the number of higher education institutions.


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• to increase participation and success and graduation rates of black students in general, and African and coloured students in particular;

• to increase the representation of blacks and women among academic and administrative staff. (NPHE, 2001: 16, 35).

In giving effect to these priorities, including those relating to equity and redress, the NPHE, as the preceding policy documents had suggested, chose to steer the higher education system through three main instruments: funding, planning, and quality. While the fi rst two instruments were controlled by the Department of Education, quality was made the responsibility of a new independent statutory body, the Council on Higher Education (CHE), which included among its functions the provision of advice to the Minister of Education and executive responsibility for quality promotion and quality assurance in higher education.

2.4 The Higher Education Quality Committee and the equity imperative

Underscoring the equity of access and outcomes in the NCHE and in the WP was the issue of the quality of the educational experience afforded to students and the awareness that education quality was, for historical reasons, unevenly distributed among public higher education institutions. Both documents referred to the creation of a national agency responsible for the implementation of a system of external quality assurance. The WP stated that the Higher Education Act would provide for the coordination of quality assurance in higher education. The Higher Education Act 101 of 1997 created the CHE, giving it policy development and implementation responsibility for quality promotion and assurance. This responsibility was to be discharged through its permanent committee, the Higher Education Quality Committee, governed by a board consisting of people with relevant experience nominated by higher education stakeholders. An interim HEQC was constituted in 1999 and the HEQC was offi cially launched in 2001 a few months before the publication of the NPHE. The historical and political trajectory in higher education that preceded its formation and the policy imperatives central to its mandate created an environment that required the HEQC to take issues of equity into systematic account. This was both in relation to defi ning the full measure of quality in South


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African higher education and in creating a new dispensation for quality assurance that would use quality assurance regulation to advance equity objectives. Such an approach would require a broadening of the conception of quality by linking it to equity and transformation issues. It was also an approach that would fi t with the general commitment across a range of social sectors to the creation of a more fair and just society through addressing directly the injustices of the past and giving substance to the vision of a more egalitarian society.

The parameters of equity

In order to articulate the HEQC’s approach to equity in quality assurance, it is important to understand the different dimensions of equity challenges in South Africa. Some of these are familiar from higher education systems in many other countries, but some are specifi cally fashioned by South Africa’s pre-1994 legislated racial dispensation and its interfaces and overlaps with other forms of social and economic stratifi cation.

Issues of equity in South Africa encompass dimensions of race, class, gender, disability, the urban/rural divide, and adult access. Inevitably, the issue of race-based equity is an overarching theme in post-apartheid South Africa, refl ected in its aspirations and arrangements for social justice as part of the reconstruction and development of the country. This is an issue of overwhelming proportions, because the racial exclusion was of the majority of the country’s population. It was a state of affairs that required sustained political will to address, with massive investment of resources and well-planned targeted programmes extending over many years. The timeframe in which, and indicators by which, racial exclusion could be judged as having been adequately redressed have raised a number of policy and practical challenges for policy actors. So, for example, the desired end points for the achievement of equity may be easier to identify and achieve in some areas (for example more demographically equitable participation and success rates in higher education), while in other areas they are likely to be more ambivalent and contested (for example equity among individuals in terms of income levels and asset ownership). Moreover, addressing race-based inequity often runs the risk of oversimplifying and reducing the complexity of equity objectives in a country like South Africa to


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numerical racial targets, which, important as they are, may fall short of addressing substantial dimensions of social and educational transformation by instead shallowly mediating them with concerns about racial representation. The NPHE makes clear that equity will not be achieved at the expense of white students (NPHE, 2001: 39). In the National Plan, the then Minister indicates a reluctance to introduce equity quotas, although he also does not rule these out in the future if higher education institutions do not develop their own equity targets and put strategies in place to achieve them (NPHE, 2001: 42). Broadly speaking, this approach also refl ects the views of the HEQC, which seeks to use quality assurance regulation as a way of getting higher education institutions themselves to take responsibility for equity issues in their quality related work and to be able to demonstrate how they are doing so. These are issues that continue to pose stark challenges to the country inside and outside the higher education system.

As is clear from the statistics presented in Section 2.2, the number of black students in the system has increased in numerical terms as has the number and proportion of women students. However, the overall participation rate of the age cohort remains low, especially for black students, as does the participation rate in postgraduate studies and SET and BC fi elds. The graduation and throughput rates are even bleaker, especially if one looks at higher education institutions where the large majority of enrolment is black.

The NPHE as a crucial policy and implementation framework for advancing equity in South African higher education proposes that participation rates in higher education will increase not only through the inclusion of more school leavers but also through “recruiting workers, mature students and the disabled” (NPHE Executive Summary, 2001: 1). The situation in respect of disabled students is not suffi ciently clear because of the absence of reliable data. The same applies to staff in higher education institutions. However, a recent study commissioned by the CHE shows that between 4 and 7 per cent of the South African population is disabled (Census, 2001) and that the majority of disabled people live in low-income households, which in itself is a major obstacle to access to higher education. Although in recent years there has been a considerable increase in the number of disabled children entering the schooling system, it is not clear how


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many of them are managing to access higher education. The CHE study indicates that higher education institutions are seldom fully equipped either in terms of infrastructure or trained academic staff to provide equitable opportunities for disabled students once they have gained access into the system (Howell, 2005: 19-21). As far as adult access is concerned, the issue of recognition of prior learning is slowly receiving more systematic conceptual and policy attention. Many higher education institutions are developing recognition of prior learning (RPL) policies to increase the number of mature students in the system, both in relation to enhancing access and educational mobility for non-traditional students like workers as well as in relation to opportunities for continuing professional development.

In relation to the socio-economic dimensions of equity, the changing class composition of the student body also highlights questions about working class access to higher education. As the student demography changes, it is clear that increasing numbers of black students are fi rst generation university students, coming from working class families with meagre incomes or from households where there are no formal wage-earners. The study on throughputs commissioned by the CHE does not indicate how much of the attrition rate is due to students who drop out of university for fi nancial reasons but who may be in good academic standing. A recent study conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) at seven higher education institutions suggests that, notwithstanding the increase in the size of the NSFAS budget, lack of funding is the most frequently cited reason by students for dropping out of university.7 In a context of insuffi cient state funding and pressure to change enrolment profi les, many higher education institutions have also sought to increase fi nancial assistance to students, while other institutions accumulated debts of millions of rands in unpaid student fees with dire consequences for both students and institutions. This situation has underlined the large overlap between race and class when analysing issues of access and equity in higher education.

7. The study is not specifi c about what proportion of these students left in good academic standing, how many have been at university longer than reasonably expected, etc. In this sense, it is still not possible to assess more accurately the relative role that academic and fi nancial diffi culties have on South Africa’s low throughput rates.


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Given the scope and proportions of the equity challenges in South African higher education evident in the legacy-related data trends as well as the legislative and policy injunctions contained in a number of founding documentation pertaining to social reconstruction in the country, it was inevitable that the quality assurance system of the HEQC would have to engage substantively with issues of equity. This was even more pressing in light of the fact that quality assurance had been fl agged as one of three steering instruments intended to move the higher education system towards the desired principles and goals constitutive of social transformation.

The HEQC criteria for quality and the lines of enquiry followed during evaluation site visits encompass to differing degrees the various dimensions of equity, since they all represent urgent tasks for multiple actors in higher education at both system and institutional levels. The race and gender focal points predominate, since they constitute the outer core within which the other lines of stratifi cation are often embedded. However, the notion of transformation as a more complex metaphor for social and educational change is invoked in order to ensure that the equity challenges are addressed within a framework that values, for example, curriculum reform, changes in institutional culture, innovative scholarship, academic freedom, and public good engagement as much as it does diversity in all its forms.

The quality assurance framework

The following section discusses the way in which the HEQC conceptualized the relationship between equity and quality and the manner in which this was translated into the design of a national quality assurance system.

Given the policy context outlined in the previous section, the main challenge of the HEQC was to design a quality assurance system which was fi t for purpose, i.e. a system that “did not lose sight of the equity and development nexus in higher education and, at the same time, was capable of guarding against oversimplifi ed understandings of equity” (Singh, 2006, p. 69). The system, moreover, needed to fi nd a way of addressing the tensions between social and institutional redress, which was carried over in some version into the new reconfi gured landscape,


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particularly where these involved institutions with very different resource bases and historical legacies. Finally, and just as diffi cult, the quality assurance system needed to focus on the quality of provision in the three core functions of higher education in a manner in which the link between social justice imperatives and academic standards could be made in an intellectually and ethically credible manner.

The HEQC conceptualization of quality re-appropriated two strands of the term ‘transformation’.8 One was used in the South African political environment to designate institutions, values, practices, and social relations, which offered an alternative to the apartheid order (Singh, 1992). This concept was often used in ways that did not separate out the different dimensions of transformation understood as a goal, a mechanism, and the processes associated with its achievement. As discussed in Section 2.3, the idea of social transformation as a goal was almost intrinsic to the political transition and informed the thinking of many of the individuals and organizations active in policy-making during the 1990s. This concept of transformation encompassed a number of other, equally complex, notions, such as equity, redress, and development. The other strand of transformation belongs to the fi eld of pedagogy and is rooted in the idea of the relationship between education and qualitative change. It includes the notion that education adds value to the student by enhancing his or her knowledge and skills, drawing on the notion of empowerment, in the sense that the educational process helps students to “infl uence their own transformation” (Harvey and Knight, 1996: 8-10). Both aspects of individual transformation and societal transformation are included in the HEQC’s view of quality in higher education.

The HEQC’s founding document (FD) defi nes quality as fi tness for purpose, value for money, and transformation “in the sense of developing the capabilities of individual learners for personal enrichment as well as the requirements of social development and economic and employment growth” (HEQC, 2004: 18). It thus links the concepts of transformation as an emancipative socio-political change process and as an individual change process. The HEQC did not

8. This is not the place to enter into a full exposition of the many interpretations that different commentators and researchers have offered for the meanings of transformation in South Africa. For a thorough review of the debate until 2004, see Motala, 2004 and Singh, 1992.


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separate the work of higher education institutions (teaching and learning, research, and community engagement) from broader processes of social transformation. On the contrary, the HEQC argued that the fi tness for purpose of higher education institutions, i.e. what institutions do in relation to the three core functions, was a ‘site’ of transformation:

The HEQC will develop a quality assurance framework that includes an explicit focus on the quality of teaching and learning activities, research and community service in order to deepen and extend the process of higher education transformation (HEQC, 5.5).

This approach encompasses three different propositions linking education, quality, and transformation. The fi rst proposition is that education is a tool for transformation. The reason why this is so has already been alluded to. The second proposition is that transformation is a goal to be achieved both in relation to the individual and society. The third states that transformation is a lens with which to assess educational processes. The translation of these propositions into a system of quality assurance required the recognition that, together with a general understanding of transformation in higher education as including equity of access and outcomes, each core function also had to be seen from a transformative perspective which is specifi c to its domain, for example pedagogy and curriculum content in relation to teaching and learning.

The recognition of transformation issues specifi c to teaching and learning, research and community engagement – and the notion that quality assurance is a tool to deepen and extend higher education transformation in relation to its core functions – is reinforced in the HEQC’s founding document through the distinction between individual and societal transformation. While one focuses on personal development, the other focuses on the “requirements of social development, and economic and employment growth”. In the HEQC’s conceptualization of quality, individual and societal transformation are not independent of each other, but neither are they different stages of an evolutionary process. The fulfi lment of the potential of all individuals who enter higher education (irrespective of race, class or gender) cannot be


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separated from the role that they have in society as citizens. Nor can it be seen independently from the role that the skills, competences and knowledge acquired by individuals have in social and economic development. All these dimensions are integrally connected to educational processes that have to be enabling in diverse ways in order to achieve the desired outcomes.

Finally, the HEQC system design was also informed by the White Paper notion that the application of the principle of equity requires the critical identifi cation of inequalities caused by specifi c policies, structures and practices, and the development of a programme of capacity building in order to redress them. This includes the idea that such transformation implies not only abolishing what is unfair, but empowering individuals and systems to bring about equal opportunity (Department of Education, 1997, 1.18).

This approach introduced accountability and development as two fundamental aspects of the system affecting both the individual and society. At the individual level, accountability operates as a safeguard for students, employers, and society at large against poor quality education. At the social level, accountability requires the examination of the contribution that higher education institutions are making to social and economic development and the creation of a more just society. This, in the particular context of South Africa, requires the provision of enhanced opportunities for historically excluded black people and women across all levels and fi elds of education in order to ensure that they have the same chances to benefi t from education and to contribute to social development. Making this possible requires further development of mechanisms and programmes that address the causes of inequality as well as ongoing obstacles to equality. In practical terms, the individual and social dimensions of accountability are exercised by institutions through the practice of self-assessment judged against specifi c criteria which make up the different HEQC sub-systems (institutional audits, programme accreditation and national reviews). The fact that in these sub-systems, institutions are asked to produce an improvement plan or are given conditions that need to be met in order to comply with minimum standards makes development the other dimension of the HEQC’s quality assurance system. This developmental commitment is a familiar part of most quality assurance systems.


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However, the traditional meaning of development in quality assurance often pertains to an enhancement of individual, programme, or institutional capabilities in respect of the core functions. These take on a social justice overlay in the case of the HEQC’s systems where the developmental aspects are explicitly related to equity and transformation imperatives. It is evident, then, that the meanings of both accountability and development in the HEQC’s quality assurance system are substantively shaped by a notion of quality that is linked to equity and transformation in higher education and in society.

As mentioned earlier, one of the problems faced in the development of a quality assurance system for South African higher education was the uneven capacity of the system with respect to the human and fi nancial resources available to different institutions, depending on their histories. In this context quality, in the fi rst instance as equivalence of minimum standards across the higher education system, becomes a necessary condition for the eventual substantive equality of opportunity for all citizens.

In relation to the institutional dimension of equity, the HEQC’s choice to include all three core functions and to have a special focus on teaching and learning provides a clear indication of the quality agency’s position in relation to equity and development at the institutional level. The South African higher education system is largely focused on undergraduate programmes and qualifi cations, and only a handful of institutions in the country can be described as research intensive. The large majority of institutions, especially historically black institutions, are undergraduate teaching institutions, a situation strongly related to the allocated role of these institutions under apartheid. The HEQC decision in 2001 to focus on the core functions of higher education was an attempt to give strategic attention to the core business of higher education in a context where almost all of the previous national focus had been on transformation relating to issues like governance, fi nancing, and access.

Aware of the huge differentials in the enabling conditions for quality and excellence and the racial and fi nancial constraints on those who had access to their benefi ts, the HEQC chose to have a common set of quality requirements for all the different sectors of higher education. This made it possible to transcend special claims about quality depending on sector


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or historical legacy. It also put the emphasis on a new set of system requirements to which all institutions were equally subject and which could serve the aspiration and right of all students to equitable access to good quality education, irrespective of which part of the higher education system they were in (Singh, 2006: 70).

However, the HEQC was also aware that the application of a common quality standard in the new system could result in a new divide with quality as the marker of an unacceptable form of differentiation. It could not ignore the very real and often stark existing differences in the effectiveness of systems among higher education institutions, the unevenness of resourcing, and the unequal capabilities of higher education institutions. The HEQC, therefore, embarked on a comprehensive capacity development programme in order to ensure that all higher education institutions would develop the institutional capabilities to respond to the common quality requirements of the HEQC, a strategic choice linked explicitly to equity and development objectives in higher education. The capacity development programme targets individuals, institutions, and institutional sectors. It seeks to equip them with information and skills relating to quality provision. The capacity development programme is also intended to do the following:

• contribute to the building of a new peer community that is more diverse in terms of race, gender and sector;

• encourage academics to exchange information on good practices in teaching and learning;

• encourage students to become more knowledgeable about and involved in quality debates and arrangements;

• support institutions to negotiate their way through hugely challenging quality issues in the context of mergers and other mission shifts.

The HEQC system

The HEQC quality assurance system has four components:

• institutional audits;• programme accreditation (which focuses on the assessment of

new programmes);


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• national reviews (which focus on the accreditation of existing programmes in a particular discipline or at a particular qualifi cation level);

• quality promotion and capacity development (which concentrates on the preparation of individuals and institutions to participate in the quality assurance system).

This section looks specifi cally at institutional audits and programme accreditation in order to elaborate on how the HEQC gave expression to its conceptualisation of the relationship between quality and equity in the design and implementation of its quality assurance system.

(a) Institutional audits

After a prolonged period of development, which included intensive consultations with higher education institutions and other stakeholders, pilot audits, and training programmes for potential auditors, the HEQC published its Framework for Institutional Audits and the Criteria for Institutional Audits in 2004 and started the implementation of the new system in that same year.

The Framework indicates that the focus of audits would be institutional systems, policies, procedures, strategies, and resources for quality management of the core functions of teaching and learning, research, and community engagement, including the relevant academic support services. Institutional audits were expected to assess the capacities of institutions to manage the quality of their activities in a manner that met their stated mission and goals (fi tness for purpose) and engaged appropriately with a range of national priorities (fi tness of purpose) (HEQC, 2004a: 4).

The Framework re-states the HEQC’s approach to quality, indicating that, while giving due consideration to mission differentiation and diversity, audits were going to look at how institutions manage the quality of their core functions in a way that addresses transformational challenges for the development of individuals and the requirements of socio-economic development. Audits should consider the relationship between quality and fi tness of purpose, and the manner in which the institution’s mission and activities took into account national priorities and needs (HEQC, 2004a: 5). Based on this and other related principles,


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the HEQC indicates that audits should be guided by the principle of linking the achievement of quality to transformation. Given the imperatives of transformation in South Africa, as explained in the previous section, the HEQC’s approach postulates equity as one of the required focal points of the quality audit.

In contextualizing the audits in terms of the restructuring and transformation of higher education, the HEQC makes explicit the specifi c quality-related goals facing South Africa:

Increased access and equity of opportunities for previously marginalized groups, especially women and black students and staff; greater responsiveness to local, regional and national needs in and through teaching and research; improved institutional effi ciencies leading to increased throughputs, retention and graduation rates in academic programmes; increased pool of black and women researchers, as well as the pool of basic and applied knowledge to enhance understanding and social application (HEQC, 2004a: 3).

As can be seen from the above quote, the notion of equity invoked by the HEQC in its audit system goes beyond simply increasing the access of blacks and women to higher education. It also includes the need for formerly excluded constituencies to enjoy equal opportunities to succeed in the system, once within it, and to participate in research across all disciplinary fi elds. In other words, increased access not accompanied by acceptable throughput rates and full participation in the system would not be enough to claim transformation at the institutional level and give effect to the link between quality and transformation, particularly within the context of the core functions of higher education.

These understandings and approach are given expression in 19 audit criteria which address two broad areas: (1) the mission of the institution, links between planning, resource allocation and quality management, and (2) teaching and learning, research, and community engagement. As in other audit systems, these criteria are presented as evaluative tools to be used by the institution for the purposes of self-evaluation and by the quality assurance agency to carry out the external evaluation.


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Further, as in other systems, HEQC audits are based on a peer review system and emphasize the importance of corroborating evidence to support quality claims. While the requirement of evidence forced both the institutions and the agency to substantiate quality related claims and fi ndings, the incorporation of peers into the system seeks to provide academic legitimacy and retain a collegial dimension in the assessment.

The HEQC audit methodology is a standard for institutional evaluations and includes a self-assessment exercise conducted by the institution, a site visit by an audit panel which has the responsibility of validating the self-evaluation through intensive interactions with a broad range of individuals, including senior management, students, academic staff, support staff, unions, employers of graduates, and research and community partners.9

The average duration of the HEQC audits of public higher education institutions is four and a half days. The fi rst two days are focused on what the higher education community in South Africa calls ‘transformation issues’, for example the concrete policies and strategies put in place, especially at historically white institutions to recruit black students from socially deprived backgrounds, in order to have a more representative student body; the actions taken at all institutions to make the institutional culture and learning environment sensitive to diversity of all kinds; the strategic allocation of resources to support institutional objectives relating to changed student and staff profi les; the nature and extent of curriculum reform and research responsiveness, and so on. The following two days explore quality management issues in relation to the core functions. The panel operates in sub-groups focusing on different operational areas by areas of specialization (teaching and learning, research, and infrastructure) in order to achieve both extensive coverage and depth of understanding of the relevant issues. The audit concludes on the morning of the fi fth day with the delivery of a verbal summation of the general fi ndings of the panel. This feedback eventually constitutes the heart of the HEQC’s written audit report to the institution.

9. Depending on the size and complexity of the institution, audit panels interview between 300 and 500 people in four days.


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The questions asked during the site visit are based on the evaluation panel’s identifi cation of the themes and lines of enquiry for the audit. This is prepared taking into account an analysis of the audit portfolio, the documentation provided by the institution, and a quantitative institutional profi le produced by the CHE using offi cial data from the DoE and other sources.

The criteria in area one (mission of the institution, links between planning, resource allocation, and quality management) are not prescriptive about transformation issues or explicit about equity requirements, in order to allow for institutional interpretations and choices within the parameters of national constitutional and legal requirements. Criterion 1, for example, refers to the expectation that institutions will give “adequate attention to transformation issues in the mission and goal setting activities of the institution, including community engagement” (HEQC, 2004b: 6). The criteria are more explicit about equity issues within the core functions. Thus, for example, criterion 3 on teaching and learning refers to the existence of mechanisms to “promote the access of students from previously disadvantaged groups, through, for example, the provision of academic development” (HEQC, 2004b: 8). Here, access refers not only to formal access in the sense of institutions actively recruiting students from previously disadvantaged groups, but also to the strategies, systems and resources available at higher education institutions to ensure that formal access to higher education is accompanied by academic success (for example, the provision of academic development programmes, the development of systems to track students at risk, and so on.). Similarly, criterion 9, which focuses on policies for staff, refers to the expectation that “redress and equity issues receive adequate attention in the recruitment, selection, appointment and development of academic and support staff” (HEQC, 2004b: 13).

An analysis of the questions asked in the course of audits and the range of participants interviewed by panels in the 17 audits of public higher education institutions conducted by the HEQC thus far indicates a sharp and focused line of questioning on issues of equity (access and success). This is the case in relation to area one (mission, etc.) and area two (core functions). The nature of the questions and the lines of enquiry have to do with the HEQC’s contextualized analysis of each institution,


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given the different historical legacies and restructuring trajectories of each of them and the different ways in which the equity challenges manifest themselves in individual institutions or sub-sectors of institutional types. All of the lines of enquiry, nevertheless, are premised on the recognition that transformation and equity issues include but go beyond issues of numerical access of formerly excluded social constituencies.

Analysis of institutional data forms part of the preparation for audits. The CHE works with the HEQC to produce institutional profi les of the different institutions to be audited. The profi les are used by HEQC audit panels in their preparations for the audits. These profi les are organized around a number of indicators of equity like enrolments by race and gender and broad classifi cation of subject matter and level of study, as well as an analysis of student’s socio-economic status through their participation in the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. To a lesser extent, the profi les also elaborate on a series of indicators of effi ciency and equity (graduations by race, gender, broad classifi cation of subject matter, and level of study). Profi les also take into account the demographic profi le of staff and how this relates to that of the student body. Finally, profi les analyse the quantity and type of research outputs in order to understand the nature and scope of the institution’s research activities, in addition to the production of postgraduates. All these indicators operate at the input and output level in relation to two of the core functions of higher education institutions: teaching/learning and research. The institutional profi les cannot provide evidence of educational or institutional processes in any of the core functions. However, they alert the audit panels to possible areas for investigation by highlighting, for example, the discrepancy between inputs and outputs for example the gap between the number of students enrolled and those who have graduated in a given year or the difference in success rates between white and black students.

This approach fi ts with the notion of ‘evidence-led audits’ and allows the HEQC to look into the link between equity and quality across institutions with different histories and operating within different contexts. However, the HEQC is aware that the restructuring of the higher education system through mergers demands an increasingly sophisticated audit methodology in order to bring together criteria that


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are fairly generic and analyses of baseline information for what are effectively brand new institutions with track records that are the collective histories of very different institutions. The audit of merged institutions also raises challenges (for the institution and for the agency) about what quality achievements the audit portfolio can report on, who can legitimately be held to account, and what is the best value that the audit visit and audit report can offer to the institution.

HEQC audit reports to higher education institutions confi rm the strong focus on transformation in the audit methodology. Research commissioned by the HEQC to assess the effect of audits suggests that institutions, particularly some historically white ones, have not always found the enquiry into transformation and equity issues by the quality assurance agency easy to manage. Observations made to the agency indicate that at some institutions, some audit interviewees have felt that audits were “about transformation and not about quality”. Based on this, a good part of the training of potential auditors is now focused on making more explicit the conceptual link between equity and quality and its practical implications in the three core functions. The audit reports also seek to buttress the audit fi ndings with analyses that link quality and equity issues, although this remains an ongoing challenge.

Audits do not have fi nancial consequences for institutions. This means that they will not, for example, lose government funding if they do not meet audit criteria satisfactorily, including equity issues. The accountability dimension of audits is built into the institutions’ self-assessment of its quality and equity linked objectives and the deep engagement with it by the audit panels. The purpose of audits is to improve quality management systems at institutions. Audit reports make recommendations to higher education institutions with regard to fi tness of and fi tness for purpose to ensure that institutions have effective policies, processes, procedures, mechanisms, and so on in place to support quality provision in the three core functions. These recommendations include issues of equity. Institutions are required to prepare improvement plans, which are submitted to the HEQC, in which they seek to address all areas of concern fl agged in the reports. In this sense, the HEQC audit system obliges institutions to identify issues that need attention in the area of equity, and more broadly transformation, and to develop viable strategies to tackle the problems


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which have been identifi ed. HEQC fi ndings on equity and quality and associated recommendations do not bring additional state funds to enable institutions to make improvements in specifi c areas pointed out in the report. However, the HEQC’s template for the preparation of improvement plans requires institutions to indicate the resources which will be allocated to specifi c projects or actions. Clearly, institutions can use audit fi ndings and their fi nancial implications to seek additional funding.

(b) Programme accreditation

The HEQC Framework for Programme Accreditation and the Criteria for Programme Accreditation were also published in 2004 after a prolonged period of consultation. The accreditation framework locates programme accreditation within the same understanding of social transformation indicated for audits. Programme accreditation must also respond to the quality-related goals of increased access and success and equity for previously marginalized groups. The Framework which focuses on the accreditation of new programmes introduces a two phase accreditation system. A candidacy phase focuses on the ability of institutions to provide all the necessary inputs, i.e. the resources and academic conditions which will make it possible to offer a programme. The full accreditation phase takes place once programmes have graduated their fi rst cohort of students and it concentrates on issues of outcomes and outputs (HEQC, 2004c: 11-13). The HEQC has developed nine criteria for the candidacy phase and ten criteria for the accreditation phase.

In relation to equity, minimum standard iii of criterion 2 on student recruitment, admission and selection, indicates:

The programme’s admission criteria are in line with the National Plan for Higher Education’s (NPHE’s) goal of widening access to higher education. Equity targets are clearly stated, as are the plans for attaining them. Provision is made, where possible, for fl exible entry routes, which includes RPL with regard to general admission requirements, as well as additional requirements for the programme, where applicable (HEQC, 2004d: 9).

In relation to the teaching and learning strategy (criterion 5), the minimum standard ii indicates that the teaching and learning strategy


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has to be appropriate for the institutional type and the student targets in the programme in terms of age, whether they are full-time or part-time, advantaged or disadvantaged (HEQC, 2004d: 11).

The criteria used in relation to the accreditation phase focuses more clearly on the availability of support for staff and students in the form of the effectiveness of the academic development initiatives (criterion 11, v) and equity of success in relation to student retention and throughput rates (criterion 17, ii).

In the area of programme accreditation, a failure to meet minimum standards has serious negative consequences for continued or new programme funding as well as authorization to offer a programme. However, minimum standards focused on equity issues do not tip the balance in relation to whether a programme gets accredited or loses its accreditation status. This fi nal judgment is predominantly determined on the basis of teaching and learning considerations. Nevertheless, accreditation reports do pay attention to issues of equity by, for example, requesting institutions to develop a realistic strategy to address shortcomings in these areas. In this sense, the HEQC has included equity in its accountability framework without entirely subordinating crucial pedagogic requirements to it. This approach helps to put fundamental issues, such as the relationships between and amongst equity, transformation and quality, on the agenda for continuing debate, engagement, and action. The HEQC Framework for Programme Accreditation takes into account the need to build institutional and programme capacity, particularly at historically disadvantaged institutions and new institutions. The outcomes of the process of accreditation include the setting of conditions that institutions have to meet in order to have their programmes fully accepted into the candidacy phase or fully accredited in the fi nal phase of the programme.

The accreditation of existing programmes, which have not been previously accredited by the HEQC, is dealt with through national reviews. National reviews are a special type of accreditation that looks at existing programmes in a particular fi eld and/or level of study. The criteria used for the accreditation of programmes in this system are modelled on the general accreditation criteria but are also shaped by


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specifi c disciplinary practices and standards.10 National reviews criteria refl ect the same concerns in relation to equity and quality that are included in the general accreditation criteria. The outcomes of accreditation in the national reviews system include full accreditation, accreditation with conditions, and no accreditation. Only those programmes in which minimum standards for curriculum design and teaching and learning principles are so severely compromised that changes cannot be effected in the short to medium term are not accredited. Programmes found to be in need of improvement in specifi c areas are given conditions that need to be met within a specifi c time-frame.

The setting of conditions for new and existing programmes to achieve full accreditation is a way of combining accountability with improvement. In the case of historically disadvantaged institutions, this creates an opportunity for development and therefore supports the pursuit of equity at the institutional level.

2.5 Conclusion

This is the fi fth year of implementation of the HEQC’s systems in a still volatile restructuring environment where several new policy frameworks are being implemented. It is diffi cult to state with a reasonable degree of certainty what the nature and extent of the impact of the HEQC’s quality assurance system is on the higher education system at large, and especially in relation to national equity imperatives. Based on research commissioned by the HEQC, it can be said that institutional audits have had a considerable impact, fi rst on institutional thinking and discussion on the relationship between equity and quality and how this relationship is best given expression in teaching and learning, research, and community engagement within particular institutional contexts and specifi c institutional missions. Second, improvement plans indicate that audits are having an impact on the development or enhancement of initiatives focused on staff and student equity profi les. Third, audits have increased institutional awareness of

10. Peers are intensively involved in the design, critique, and approval of HEQC criteria for each national review. At the time of this writing the HEQC has conducted two national reviews. The Masters of Business Administration was reviewed between 2003 and 2004, and a selection of academic and professional programmes in education was reviewed between 2005 and 2007.


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the many aspects of the student experience and how these relate to institutional cultures, perceptions of race, class, and so on and their possible constraining effects on student learning. Finally, it appears that, to some extent, audits help institutions to make connections between the academic success (pass rates and throughputs) of students from different racial groups and equity issues.

Institutional audits produce a huge amount of detailed information on individual higher education institutions that can be aggregated and analysed at the system level. The fact that the Council on Higher Education has monitoring and advice responsibilities facilitates the process of analysis of audit data and its use as feedback to the process of policy implementation at national level.11

The HEQC has yet to implement the full accreditation phase of its programme accreditation system. It is not clear to what extent the accreditation criteria have affected issues of equity at the programme level by, for example, closing the gap in the throughput rates of black and white students. However, it is important to stress that the focus on formal and epistemological access already in the candidacy phase brings issues of equity to the fore in relation to programme design and teaching and learning. At a more general level, the impact of accreditation on improving the quality of provision by, for example, helping to control the proliferation of poor quality programmes offered by public and private providers reinforces one specifi c dimension of the relationship between quality and social justice. Many poor (black) students are the fi rst generation of their families in higher education. This, combined with high fees and entry levels that they cannot meet in many institutions, makes these students more vulnerable to the lure of substandard programmes and dubious qualifi cations. In enforcing minimum standards across the system, the HEQC accreditation system helps to provide some protections for students like these.

As indicated in the early sections of this analysis, the emergence of a new quality assurance dispensation in South African higher education is an integral part of a reform initiative in higher education.

11. The HEQC and the Monitoring Directorate of the CHE are currently involved in the analysis of the fi rst set of institutional audit reports in order to establish trends in relation to both fi tness of purpose and transformation and fi tness for purpose.


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This reform is itself part of a larger project of social reconstruction marked by very explicit social justice imperatives. As a consequence, the quality assurance system seeks to include issues of equity and transformation within a broadened conceptualization of quality and an approach to quality assurance regulation that reaches beyond traditional ways of thinking about higher education accountability. The relationship between equity and quality remains a challenging issue in the higher education system, and it is not clear whether all stakeholders understand the nature of the connection between the two or how to give effect to it, demonstrate it and report on its successful achievement. The risk of facile claims and positions among all concerned has to be guarded against, not least by those who work in the quality assurance agency. What is clear is that it would be almost impossible for the HEQC to postulate quality improvement as a goal in the journey towards a more just higher education system and society without confronting the large-scale equity and redress legacies of the South African past.

The South African experiment in conceptualizing quality assurance as an encompassing social justice issue, including equity, has opened up a way of thinking about and conducting quality assurance that requires a broadened understanding of accountability and development which are two key reference points for an increasingly dominant form of regulation in higher education. A great deal of work remains to be done in order to make such an approach conceptually coherent, methodologically practical, and intellectually credible.


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3. EQUITY AND QUALITY ASSURANCE IN BRAZILIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

Dilvo Ristoff

We are persuaded that a thread runs through all things: all worlds are strung on it, as beads; and men, and events, and life, come to us only because of that thread: they pass and repass only that we may know the direction and continuity of that line.

Ralph Waldo EmersonMontaigne: or, the Skeptic

3.1 Introduction

In 1988, the Brazilian Constitution established that “education is free to private initiative” following “evaluation of quality by the State” (Article 209). The concern of the legislators, at a time when access to basic education was to many Brazilian children an unaffordable luxury, was that: (1) further investments in higher education should not be demanded from the state; (2) expansion of the system and an increase in opportunity should occur mainly in the private sector; (3) the state should be responsible for the assurance of quality; and (4) in order to perform that function adequately, it should unequivocally assume the role of an evaluative state.12 This article of the Brazilian Constitution is one of the fi ne, almost invisible, threads that run through the country’s approximately 2,400 institutions of higher education and 26,000 undergraduate programmes, telling us that they are not isolated, but rather part of a system, following a design, even though at times they may seem only loosely connected.

This constitutional thread was signifi cantly strengthened a few years later, in 1995, by the simultaneous creation of the National Education Council and the establishment of the notion of periodic evaluation. While the National Education Council became responsible for formulating and evaluating the national educational policies; accrediting higher education institutions; and defi ning the major profi le,

12. The notion of the “evaluative state” was coined by Neave (1988).


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the curricular directives, and basic competencies of undergraduate majors, the requirement of periodic evaluation made it emphatically clear that all institutions and programmes from that point on would be periodically submitted to an evaluation process that would assure quality and adherence to the national directives. Low quality and disregard for the national directives would have direct consequences on the re-accreditation of institutions and programmes. What became patently clear with the strengthening of the constitutional thread was not only a mere increase of the national punitive mood or a greater intolerance for low quality, but especially the perception of the urgent need to reorganize and discipline the expansion of the private sector.

A year later, in 1996, the Federal Law for Education (LDB13) put an end to any ambiguities about the state’s role in the regulatory process, when it established that “it is the federal government’s duty to authorize, recognize, accredit, supervise and evaluate programmes and institutions of higher education.” The role of deciding which programmes and institutions may or may not join the higher education system and remain part of it is thus given to the federal government. Since these decisions depend upon supervision and evaluation and since these two functions are also attributed to the federal government, LDB decided at the same time that all private institutions belonged to the federal system, along with the government-sponsored federal institutions. Not only did evaluation and regulation become inextricably entwined, but both the regulatory and the evaluation processes became highly centralized. Today, about 93 per cent of all higher institutions belong to the federal system and depend, as a consequence, on the union for their accreditation.

LDB further threaded the undergraduate programmes together when it established that it is the duty of the federal government “to assure, at all levels, a national process of evaluation of students’ learning.” This initiative, combined with the establishment of national guidelines for all undergraduate majors, led in basic education to large-scale exams like Prova Brazil (a reading and mathematics test applied to 4th and 8th grade students of all urban schools in the country) and to Enem (applied to fi nal year high school students). Each of these tests

13. Throughout this chapter, the acronyms used are for Portuguese titles.


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Equity and quality assurance in Brazilian higher education

was given in 2005 and 2006 to millions of students. In higher education, LDB laid the groundwork for a test offi cially called the Undergraduate Programme Examination and popularly known as the Provão (that is, the ‘big test’). The Provão was initially given in 1996 to students in their last year in undergraduate majors (administration, law, and civil engineering). In 1997 it was expanded to 7 majors, in 1998 to 10, and in 2003, the last year it was given, to 26. With the advent of SINAES (National Higher Education Evaluation System) in 2003, the Provão was replaced by the ENADE (National Student Performance Examination), a test given to freshmen and fi nal year students of all undergraduate majors. As we can see, the legal requirement of LDB that students’ learning must be verifi ed was transformed into large-scale exams with tremendous impact on schools, campuses, and especially society at large.

In 2001, Brazil approved the current Education Master Plan (PNE). With regard to higher education, the Plan demonstrated two somewhat contradictory concerns: (1) the need to offer more youths the opportunity to continue their studies after high school; and (2) the fear that quality would be diluted by the extension of education to the masses (the fear of ‘massifi cation’). At the time, Brazil was among the countries in Latin America with the smallest percentage of students between 18 and 24 years old in higher education, which represented a net enrolment ratio of less than nine per cent and a gross enrolment ratio of 12 per cent.14 Although previous expansion policies had proved effective, further action was needed to achieve levels of opportunity comparable with those of Asian, European and some Latin American countries. The second concern could be easily observed in the poor performance of students of private higher education institutions on the Provão and in the extraordinarily rapid growth of these, mostly very small, institutions.15 It was in this context that the PNE was presented and approved in a joint non-partisan effort.

14. The last Brazilian Higher Education Census available for 2007 brings the net enrolment rate up to 12 per cent and the gross rate to 20 per cent. It should be noted that about 40 per cent of Brazilian higher education students are past the age of 24.

15. From 1996 to 2001, the number of private institutions grew from 711 to 1,208 – a 69.9 per cent increase in six years; the number of private undergraduate programmes, in the same period, grew from 3,666 to 7,754 – a 111.5 per cent increase; student enrolment in private institutions, during the same period, grew 84.6 per cent, from 1,133,102 to 2,091,529 students.


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The fear of massifying public higher education was somewhat attenuated by the need to expand and by the perception of an underlying image of the future of the country. The vision that moved legislators was expressed in the idea that “no country can aspire to be developed and independent without a strong higher education system”. A strong higher education system, however, unless meant to continue serving only the elite of the nation, needed to be simultaneously concerned with both quantity and quality.

The directives of the Education Master Plan of 2001 can thus be summarized as follows: “to assure expansion with quality.” It was with this concern that it established the three major goals for higher education: (1) increase enrolment to 30 per cent of the targeted age group by the year 2011 (currently 11 per cent are enrolled); (2) increase enrolment in public universities to 40 per cent of total enrolment (currently, 30 per cent of the enrolment is in public institutions); and (3) develop a national evaluation system to monitor the steps of the programme and assure quality. The Education Master Plan is explicit about this. Article 4 of the PNE states that the Federal Government “will institute a National Evaluation System and establish the necessary mechanisms for the constant monitoring of the goals of the National Education Master Plan.” The Federal Government, together with the states and the Federal District, municipalities and civil society, has the duty to proceed with “periodic evaluations of the implementation process of the National Education Master Plan” (Article 3). Furthermore, the plan determines that the powers of the Federal Government, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities must make an effort to disseminate the PNE and “the progressive accomplishment of its goals and objectives, so that society may know and monitor its implementation” (Article 6).

The Brazilian higher education system has been strengthened during the past 15 years by the last three administrations. An analysis of President Lula’s plan for higher education shows that it has been strongly infl uenced by the National Education Master Plan, especially with regard to the issues of equity and quality assurance. Among the six basic commitments to higher education of Lula’s plan are four directly concerned with expansion and equity and, therefore, worth mentioning in this context:


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• the recognition of the strategic role of universities, especially those of the public sector, for the social and economic development of the country;

• the increase of public fi nancing of signifi cant expansion of enrolment in higher education, especially in the public sector and during the night shift;

• the public sector revision and expansion of educational loans to students and the creation of a scholarship system, with funds not constitutionally tied to education;

• the defense of the constitutional principle of free public higher education.

These four commitments underlie many of the 25 lines of action proposed for higher education. Some of these lines of action deserve to be mentioned:

• expanding, in four years, the enrolment in higher education, to percentages compatible with the PNE;

• establishing mechanisms and criteria to overcome the limitations of the current screening processes of students, considering new forms of access to higher education, especially for black students and for students coming from public high schools;

• establishing measures aimed at reducing attrition rates;• progressively instituting a national university network for high

quality distance education;• expanding training and research scholarships for students and

creating teacher training and extension programmes;• replacing the current student loan system with a new Programme of

Social Support for Students, with loans to be given to 396,000 students, according to criteria based on student need and programme quality;

• creating a Community Work-study Programme, with scholarships for 180,000 needy higher education students, studying in good


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quality programmes, in the context of the National Minimum Income Programme;16

• establishing and instituting measures to diminish inequality of opportunity and to promote the development of different regions of the country and access to higher education in the countryside.

It was in this context and with this understanding that, three years later, the Minister of Education, Tarso Genro, translated the PNE and the presidential candidate’s programme into governmental policy: “Higher education,” wrote Genro, “has a strategic mission and must promote the consolidation of a nation that is sovereign, democratic, inclusive, and capable of generating social emancipation.” The argument is that higher education’s mission is not a simple operational goal but a strategic policy concerned with the future of the country. How does he imagine that future? Much like the legislators themselves: a country that is sovereign, that is, capable of defi ning and pursuing its own destiny; democratic, that is, at the service of all the people and not at the service of the oligarchies; inclusive, that is, in the context of higher education, offering opportunities to each and every one that looks for higher education; and emancipative, that is, offering individuals the opportunity to grow and generate their own opportunities in life and to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life for all.

Minister Genro also had in mind Proposal Number 12, which states the intention to “revise the current evaluation system and institute a national institutional evaluation system, based among others in the experience of the National Institutional Evaluation Programme of Brazilian Universities (PAIUB)”. The new national evaluation system originates in an environment of acute awareness of the national concern with equity, and it is only natural to expect that the evaluation and information instruments that were constructed should express this concern.

16. Programme created by the Federal Government in 2001 with the purpose of improving health and nutrition of poor pregnant and lactant women and children between eleven months and six years of age. This and a few other social assistance programmes were, in President Lula’s government, integrated in the Family Scholarship Programme (Bolsa Família) and placed under the umbrella programme called Zero Hunger (Fome Zero). These are conditional programmes of direct income transference to families facing great social vulnerability. The conditions for receiving the assistance are the acceptance of basic health care and keeping school-age children in school. Currently, 11.1 million Brazilian families receive governmental assistance through these programmes.


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3.2 SINAES: The Brazilian national system of higher education evaluation

Brazil’s accreditation system, as stated above, is essentially federal and follows the guidelines established by SINAES – the new National System for Higher Education Evaluation – created by law on 14 April 2004. Results of evaluations produced by this system are used by different governmental sectors as the basic reference for accrediting new institutions and re-accrediting existing ones, authorizing new undergraduate programmes and accrediting old ones, as well as deciding on measures to correct existing problems, overcome diffi culties, or eventually to intervene in an institution or even shut down programmes which show unacceptable performance.

SINAES is coordinated by a national commission, appointed by the Minister of Education, and is made operational by INEP, the Brazilian National Institute for Educational Research. SINAES consists basically of a set of three instruments: (1) institutional evaluation (in loco evaluation by peers); (2) undergraduate programme evaluation (in loco evaluation by peers); and (3) student performance evaluation (a national examination given simultaneously to freshmen and fi nal year students of all majors and programmes).

The meaning of institutional evaluation is defi ned by law and is concerned with ten broad dimensions that are considered to affect the daily operations of all programmes of an academic institution and the general atmosphere of campus life. Institutional evaluation has two moments: (1) auto-evaluation, carried out by committees on all campuses and organized around the ten dimensions required by law; and (2) external evaluation of the institution carried out by peers, that is, by faculty members of higher education institutions of other states and regions of the country, making use of an instrument built around the same ten dimensions. In the institutional evaluation instrument, the following ten dimensions have been transformed into 73 indicators:

1. mission and institutional development plan; 2. policies for teaching, research and extension activities; 3. policies and working conditions for faculty and staff;4. organization and management;5. infra-structure;


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6. communication with society;7. policies for student permanence on campus;8. social responsibilities of the institution;9. planning and evaluation;10. fi nancial health of the institution.

The auto-evaluation process of institutions necessarily has to follow the ten dimensions listed above but may include others considered pertinent by the local commissions.

Undergraduate programme evaluation, on the other hand, concerns itself with three major aspects: (1) faculty; (2) the organization of the pedagogical programme; and (3) physical facilities (including libraries, laboratories, classrooms, and so on). In each of these categories the impact of overall institutional policies is also considered. The programme evaluation instrument includes indicators to evaluate the use of results produced by the national examination, both in terms of the performance of students in each of the 40 questions of the examination and in terms of the expectations of students about their programme’s capacity to offer them quality education. A thorough report on the socio-economic and cultural profi le of students, including data about attrition rates of different groups of students, is received by each programme coordinator in the country prior to the on-site visit by the evaluators.

Brazilian graduate programmes, on the other hand, continue to be evaluated by the Fundação Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), which is the Brazilian agency responsible for promoting the training of higher education faculty and staff. In 1976, CAPES began a very successful evaluation process, and its integration into SINAES occurs not at the programme but at the institutional level. CAPES is also a permanent member of the National Evaluation Committee (CONAES), which oversees the implementation of the evaluation system, and of the Technical Commission for the Monitoring of the Evaluation Process – a 25-member commission, with two representatives from each of the eight fi elds of knowledge, as


83


defi ned by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).17

The national student performance examination (ENADE) is given annually to students of different groups of programmes, but only once every three years to the same group. The examination is built according to national guidelines established by the National Education Council for each of the academic fi elds. Since the same examination is given simultaneously to freshmen and those in their fi nal year, it takes into consideration the whole spectrum of the national guidelines, including questions of low, intermediate, and high level complexity. Freshmen are expected to be able to answer only questions of low and intermediate complexity, yet results show that students of universities with highly selective admittance policies very often manage to answer questions of high levels of complexity. The examination also includes ten general education questions to be answered by all students of all fi elds. These questions are intended to measure instrumental skills considered important to professionals of all fi elds of knowledge, especially communication skills. Participation in the examination is compulsory for all students selected by INEP.

Students also answer a questionnaire with questions regarding, among other things: (1) themselves (their expectations, family income, parents education, etc.), (2) their teachers (how they perceive their teaching attitudes and general performance, etc.), (3) the curriculum (the articulation of courses and their perception of adherence to life and impact on their education, etc.), and (4) physical facilities (quality of libraries, laboratories, classrooms, etc.). The questionnaire asks a total of 105 questions prior to the examination and is handed in by students on the day of the examination. Similarly, programme coordinators are asked to answer questions about their perception of the examination and about the programme. Many of these questions are identical to those answered by students.

17. The OECD classifi cation table, used by INEP, the Brazilian Institute for Educational Studies and Research, responsible for conducting educational evaluations, defi nes the following general fi elds of knowledge: (1) Agriculture and Veterinary; (2) Science, Mathematics and Computer Sciences; (3) Social Sciences, Business and Law; (4) Education; (5) Engineering, Production and Construction; (6) Humanities and Arts; (7) Health, and (8) Services.


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These evaluation instruments are being integrated into old and new information instruments, such as the annual national higher education census and the national census of higher education professors. The integration of these information instruments into the evaluation system allows evaluators to build profi les of programmes and institutions prior to the in loco evaluation, contributing signifi cantly to the understanding of their identity, trajectory, diffi culties, potentials, and perspectives for the future.

All instruments grade institutions and undergraduate programmes on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 and 2 indicate weaknesses detected, 4 and 5 indicate existing strengths and 3 indicates the minimum acceptable quality level for a programme’s continuation. In case of low or high performance, evaluators are required to identify the weaknesses and strengths that justifi ed the grade attributed.

Brazilian law establishes that the results of evaluation are to be used by the Ministry of Education as the basic reference in all its regulatory decisions. Thus, institutions and programmes with poor performance are required to sign a commitment to correct within a certain established amount of time the defi ciencies encountered by the evaluation commission. Should the institution fail to do so, the Ministry may intervene by discontinuing certain programmes or even shutting the institution down altogether. During 2008, two higher education institutions and 1,337 distance education sites (Pólos de Apoio Presencial) were closed down by the Ministry of Education. Also, 81 law programmes were forced to reduce enrolment by half. In 2009, pedagogy and medicine programmes with poor evaluation results are being closely scrutinized.

SINAES was conceived in such a way that institutional evaluation could not be confused with programme evaluation, much less with student performance evaluation, although each of these processes interacts, informs, and contributes to the understanding of the other. Thus, in summary, the new evaluation system has three perspectives: the trajectory of undergraduate students; the conditions for teaching and studying in the undergraduate programmes; and the institution and the major policies which guide its mission and strategies for offering high quality education.


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3.3 Equity concerns in SINAES

How do the threads that connect the Brazilian higher education system suffuse into the evaluation system? To what extent are the major instruments of evaluation and information of SINAES (Institutional Evaluation, Programme Evaluation, ENADE, the yearly Higher Education Census, the National Student Questionnaire, and the Faculty Census) sensitive to the equity issue in higher education and capable of inducing on-campus academic concerns on the matter, informing society, and sustaining adequate public policies?

The law that instituted SINAES makes it very clear that its raison d’être is the affi rmation of values that will promote institutional concern with the social context to which institutions belong. Article 1, Paragraph 1, of the law establishing SINAES states,

The objectives of SINAES are the improvement of quality of higher education, orientation of its expansion, permanent increase in its institutional effi cacy and academic and social effectiveness and, especially, the promotion of a deepening of the social commitments and responsibility of the institutions of higher education, through the enhancement of their public mission, the promotion of democratic values, the respect for differences and diversity, and the affi rmation of autonomy and institutional identity.

Once more, quality and quantity are inseparable forces, not only in the National Education Master Plan, but also in SINAES. Yet SINAES implies more: it includes the ideas of social effectiveness, social commitments, social responsibility, public mission, democratic values – words and concepts that in one way or another manage to fi nd their place in the instruments of evaluation and information.

As a result, we may observe that all instruments of SINAES are concerned with both equity and quality, even though these two concepts, frequently regarded as antagonistic, remain at the core of the most widely questioned and contested aspect of the democratization process of higher education in Brazil. Institutional and programme evaluations include a number of indicators directed at inducing institutions to produce and act upon policies of inclusion of poor and minority students. Institutional evaluation, for instance, has as one of its ten


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evaluation dimensions the policies for student retention on campus. This may seem trivial in other countries, but it is not in the Brazilian context, where data show that 25 per cent of high school students are so poor that, even if higher education were free, they would have extreme diffi culty in meeting the expenses of living on campus. Data also show that as access to basic education is universalized, the incoming generations of students belong to families whose income is about 43 per cent less than that of those who are already on campus. This explains why this dimension acquires such importance in the evaluation process. Democratization of basic education places a very heavy load on higher education, for there is a growing belief, although still far from a consensus expressed in actions, that society has no right to deny poor students the opportunity to continue studying only because they are poor. Thus, more concretely, the institutions’ commitment to programmes of social inclusion, affi rmative action, and full access to digital resources is highly valued in the context of SINAES when they exist and are coherent with the institutions’ overall policies.

Similarly, the programme evaluation instruments (for entrance and permanence in the system) contain a number of indicators aimed at inducing institutional attention to the educational context, considering the enrolment rates of students of the targeted age group; social demands for the particular kind of programme being offered; other existing opportunities in the region; possibilities of professional insertion of graduates in the region; impact of the programme on socio-economic development; reduction of regional inequalities; promotion of social inclusion; and the relation of general indicators vis-à-vis the equity concerns of the National Education Master Plan. Table 3.1 shows fi ve examples of such concerns.


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Table 3.1 Programme evaluation indicators, grades and criteria related to inclusion

Indicator Score CriterionEducational context 5 Totally satisfactory when the programme takes

into account for its access policies the number of places offered and the number of potential high school graduates in the region where the programme is located as well as the indicators established in the National Education Master Plan (PNE).

1 Totally unsatisfactory when the programme does not take into account for its access policies the number of places offered, the number of potential high school graduates in the region where the Programme is located as well as the indicators established in the National Education Master Plan (PNE).

Impact of programme in the socio-economic development of the region and its concern with the reduction of inequalities and the promotion of social inclusion

5 Totally satisfactory when the programme demonstrates in its pedagogical project that it contributes to socio-economic development, the reduction of regional inequalities and the promotion of social inclusion.

Remedial policies 5 Totally satisfactory when the programme develops systematic activities aimed at overcoming educational defi ciencies of incoming students.

Sign language 3 Satisfactory when the programme accounts for the opportunity to study Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). Libras is a compulsory course in all teacher training programmes and phono-audiology programmes. (Decree No. 5.626/2005).

Accessibility to students with physical disabilities

Satisfactory when the facilities allow easy access and mobility to students with physical disabilities. (Decree No.5.296/2004).

Source: MEP/INEP/DEAES/SINAES/2006.


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Each indicator of the programme and institutional evaluation instrument is accompanied by a set of fi ve criteria, used by the evaluators to decide to what extent the programme meets the basic requirements established by the federal government, ranging from totally satisfactory (5) to totally unsatisfactory (1). A score of 3 represents the minimum acceptable standard.

3.4 Revelations of the national student performance examination – ENADE

The national examination and the accompanying questionnaire, which has been administered to Brazilian students during the last ten years, have become one of the major referents for understanding the student profi le and how it has changed. Its contribution to national equity policies has been so far underestimated, but it is clear that even strongly contested inclusion policies are regarded differently by society and by the academy when viewed in terms of the ENADE data. Before presenting such results, however, it is important to observe and discuss the kind of equity-related information the ENADE produces.

One such fi nding is that there are more poor students on public than on private campuses, as can be seen in Graph 3.1.

Graph 3.1 Percentage of poor students on campus and in Brazilian society

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Family income up to 3 minimum wages

Brazilian society

Public institutions

Private institutions


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Source: MEC/INEP/DEAES, 2005; IBGE/PNAD, 2005.

It is important to note that although over 50 per cent of Brazilian families live on incomes of up to three minimum wages a month (approximately US$390), only 30 per cent of this group manage to get into public higher education institutions, and only 25.5 per cent into private institutions, revealing a shocking exclusion of the poor in both.

When we look at family income, from the perspective of wealthier students, as shown in Graph 3.2, we observe that the trend is exactly the opposite.

Graph 3.2 Percentage of wealthy students on campus and in Brazilian society

Brazilian society

Public institutions

Private institutions

0

5

10

15

20

Family income above 10 minimum wages


This group represents 11.8 per cent of the total population in Brazil. On campus, however, whether education is public and free or private and paid, this social group represents more than twice what it represents in society.

The opportunity or lack of opportunity for students in higher education varies from major to major, but in all cases it is clear that the campus population is much wealthier than society at large. In nursing and physical education, majors that have percentages closer to the 50 per cent of low-income families we fi nd in society, only 30 per cent of students belong to the poorest group. In dentistry and medicine we


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fi nd only 10.5 per cent and 8.8 per cent, respectively. In other words, even where campus percentages may be considered closer to those in society, the fact remains that the poor are grossly under-represented in higher education.

A small minority in society becomes a large majority on campus. This distortion becomes especially evident when we approach the issue from the vantage point of rich families (with incomes of more than ten minimum wages) in certain college majors. It is important to recall that this group represents 11.8 per cent in Brazilian society. In dentistry and medicine, however, these 11.8 per cent make up 52 per cent and 67 per cent, respectively, of the student body.

Colour and race on campus seem to have a strong correlation with family income. To a large extent, rich students tend to be white,18 come from private high schools and families with high income, and have parents with university degrees, as can be seen in Graph 3.3.

Graph 3.3 Percentage of whites in Brazilian society and on campus

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

Whites

In Brazilian society

Freshmen

Final-year students


18. Throughout this chapter, ‘white’ is used to refer to Brazilians of European ancestry, ‘black’ to those of African ancestry, and ‘mulatto’ to those of mixed black and white ancestry. In the offi cial census, respondents are given the following options to describe their “race/colour”: white, black, brown, yellow or indigenous.


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As seen above, whites represent about 50 per cent of the Brazilian population. However, on average the Brazilian campus is signifi cantly whiter for students in their fi rst year and becomes about 20 per cent whiter for graduating students. Although this may sound strange, the fact is that Graph 3.3 is also applicable to the state of Bahia – the Brazilian state with the largest population of Brazilians of African descent. In the state of Bahia, whites represent 45.6 per cent of the student body, whereas in the state as a whole, they represent only 21 per cent of the population.

Surprisingly, the group classifi ed as black has reached percentages of representation on campus comparable to those of their representation in the Brazilian population. It should be noted, however, that unlike many other countries, when collecting data, Brazilian research institutes like INEP and IBGE distinguish between blacks and mulattoes.

Graph 3.4 Percentage of blacks in Brazilian society and on campus


Freshmen

Final-year students

0

2

4

6

BlacksSource: MEC/INEP/DEAES, 2005; IBGE/PNAD, 2005.

Blacks represent 5.9 per cent of the Brazilian population. When they arrive on campus, they represent 6.2 per cent, and when they graduate they represent 4.5 per cent, indicating a loss of 1.7 per cent of black representation before they fi nish their studies.

When Mulattoes are considered, however, the colour on campus changes signifi cantly, as seen in Graph 3.5.


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Graph 3.5 Percentage of mulattoes in Brazilian society and on campus


Freshmen

Final-year students

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Mulattoes


In Brazilian society, mulattoes represent 41 per cent of the population. On campus, however, only 23 per cent of freshmen and only 18.9 per cent of fi nal-year students are mulattoes. As can be noted, not only are mulattoes severely under-represented, but many of them do not manage to fi nish their studies, clearly requiring special attention of authorities with regard to on-campus permanence policies.

The race/colour representation also shows that among the ten majors with the greatest proportion of whites, fi ve belong to the health fi eld (dentistry, veterinary studies, pharmacy, psychology and medicine), all with more than 77 per cent white students, i.e. about 27 per cent greater than the representation of whites in the Brazilian population. Among the majors with proportionately fewer whites are social sciences, with 55.5 per cent; geography, with 55.7 per cent; history, with 56.6 per cent; pedagogy, with 59.2 per cent; and letters, with 60.7 per cent. The majors with the greatest proportions of whites are materials engineering (82.4 per cent); production engineering (81.5 per cent) and architecture, with 80 per cent of white students. Two conclusions can be derived from these data: (1) the Brazilian campus is as a rule much ‘whiter’ than the Brazilian population; (2) in professional majors, the distance between racial representation on campus and in society is signifi cantly greater than in the humanities.


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Where students studied during primary and secondary school can reveal the extent to which the profi le of students on campus has changed in the last ten years. It is important to understand that public schools are cost-free, whereas private schools can be quite expensive, as can be seen in Graph 3.6.

Graph 3.6 Percentage of higher education students by school origin

25 25.428.2

58.8

50.5 48.9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Studied in public school

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

ENADE cycle

Source: MEC/INEP/DEAES 2002-2006; IBGE/PNAD, 2006.

As can be seen, the number of university students coming from public schools has almost doubled during the last six years. With regard to Graph 3.6, it is important to note two aspects: (1) in the year 2005 students of the teacher training programmes participated in the survey and are likely responsible for the higher percentage of students originating from public schools, since poorer students are over-represented in those majors; and (2) the ENADE cycle summarizes the answers of all fi nal year students of the 80 different majors that have taken the ENADE examination in 2004, 2005, and 2006, and is, therefore, a better rendering of the average profi le of students on Brazilian campuses.

Although the data above may suggest that the equity issue is being satisfactorily addressed, one should not disregard the fact that 87 per cent of Brazilian pre-university education is public. In other words, the


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Brazilian higher education system, despite the advancements that have occurred in the last years, still excludes large numbers of public school students. The severity of this issue can be seen even more dramatically when we look at the data for specifi c majors in which students are enrolled. For a few selected majors, see Table 3.2.

Table 3.2 Percentage of higher education students who come from public schools

Major Percentage of students who studied only in public schools

Medicine 8.2%Dentistry 19.3%Veterinary 25.3%Architecture 28.8%Occupational therapy 30.5%Accounting 69.7%Letters 70.2%Mathematics 72.0%Pedagogy 72.2%Teacher training 79.1%Source: Mec/INEP/DEAES, 2006.

All other undergraduate majors in the Brazilian system show percentages that range from 30.5 per cent to 69.7 per cent. It may be argued, therefore, that even in those majors that have the highest percentages of public school students (for example mathematics, pedagogy, and teacher training), public schools are still underrepresented, and the 13 per cent of the population educated in private schools come to represent, for example, 92 per cent of medical students. Thus, affi rmative action policies cannot be anchored on general averages only but must instead consider the exclusion historically dictated by specifi c subcultures in the different academic fi elds or majors as well. It may be inferred, therefore, that for a student originating from a paid private school, the chance of entering higher education, especially in a highly demanded major, is many times greater than that of a student coming from a free and public school.

One strong indication that more poor students are gaining access to higher education is that the number of fi nal year students who report


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that their parents (father and mother) had no formal schooling whatsoever has more than doubled in the last fi ve years (Graph 3.7).

Graph 3.7 Last-year students whose fathers received no formal schooling

2.1 2.5

8.3

4.5

2.2

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Father without any formal schooling

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

ENADE cycle

Psychology

Pedagogy

13.2

5.1

1.6

Source: MEC/INEP/DEAES, 2002-2006; IBGE/PNAD, 2006.

Four observations should be made about Graph 3.7: (1) only fi nal year students are computed, because until the year 2003, the national examination and questionnaire was only given to fi nal year students; (2) majors that were tested are not necessarily the same, which explains why the year 2005, which along with engineering included teacher training programmes, seems so anomalous; (3) the ENADE cycle considers all 80 majors tested in the years 2004, 2005 and 2006, and is a more accurate representation; and (4) psychology and pedagogy are only presented here to show the striking differences of socio-economic profi le of the student population in different majors.

What the data above also seem to show is that the long-accepted thesis, reproduced again and again in the media and in academic texts, that the campus is a mirror image of society and that it refl ects society in all its peculiarities, privileges, commotions, and injustices, is at most a half-truth. The data show that if the campus can be seen as a mirror image of society, then it must be defi ned as an image produced by those kinds of mirrors that distort what they refl ect. All in all, there can only


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be one conclusion: in many ways, Brazilian undergraduate programmes do not refl ect but rather enlarge existing social inequities.

One might argue that campuses refl ect different kinds of Brazil, with all its regional and state inequalities. After all, when one argues that Brazil graduates one physician and one dentist for approximately every 19,000 inhabitants, and that in the north of the country this proportion is one per 40,000 and in the northeast one per 33,000, one is also describing a country which is regionally quite unequal in its capacity to educate professionals. Yet, even this inequality seems to be more of a refraction than a refl ection: the campuses of Rio de Janeiro, a state with only 8.4 per cent of the Brazilian population, graduate 24 per cent of the physicians of the country, whereas there are states that have yet to graduate a single physician, dentist or nurse. The inequalities on campus by far outperform those projected by society.

Since the rhythm of growth of certain majors is very different (in the last four years physiotherapy and nursing grew 741 per cent and 443 per cent, respectively, whereas medicine and dentistry grew, in contrast, only 38 per cent and 50 per cent), it is quite easy to perceive that public health policies need to be anchored in the specifi c realities of each major vis-à-vis the demands of states and of the country in general.

Thus, only with policies of expansion, combined with democratization of access and permanence of students, is it possible to move beyond a campus that increases the inequalities of Brazilian society. To insist on the thesis that the campus only refl ects society is to attribute to it a passive role which, as data show, it certainly does not have. It means, furthermore, taking away from it the role of an active agent capable of intervening in more acceptable ways in present-day reality.

3.5 When equity faces quality

Equity policies in Brazil have faced three strong adversaries: professional associations, segments of society at large, and the academy itself. These adversaries, in different ways, tend to regard expansion, diversifi cation and inclusion as natural enemies of quality, as destabilizing forces that need to be contained. Their intervention in the


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media is oftentimes vehement and relentless; their outcry on campuses frequently noisy and hostile; and their lobby in parliament and in governmental offi ces quite obvious and presumptuous. Sheltered by an abstract unchanging notion of quality, these arguments at times mobilize social resistance to the point of jeopardizing important equity policies.

Paul Boyer (2003) argues that this resistance hides a behind-the-scenes war of values, where “the values of an elite system now collide with the realities of a mass system” (p.167). The elite system imagines itself a place of prestige, small, personal, student-centred, and friendly, where “all students and teachers share a common passion for scholarly pursuit” (p.169). The mass system, on the other hand, imagines itself as a path to opportunity – an institution, not necessarily a place, that is large, diverse, and inclusive. Boyer claims that “the rapid expansion and diversifi cation of the undergraduate student body can produce an undercurrent of resentment among some faculty who also cling to the ideals of an elite system” (p.167). To a large extent, the Brazilian academy, especially in research universities, shares similar confl icts.

Whereas members of the academy protect the elite system on the grounds that it assures quality education – a quality that is supposedly incompatible with large numbers, especially large numbers of students from different social backgrounds – professional associations tend to argue that, not only is expansion detrimental to quality, but there are already enough professionals in the market, especially doctors, lawyers, administrators, and engineers. The lawyers’ and doctors’ organizations do not decide on the authorization of new programmes, but the Ministry of Education is legally required to submit all new projects to them. The result is predictable: their formal briefs systematically reject virtually all projects. A recent decision by the Ministry’s Technical Evaluation Monitoring Commission (CTAA) is illustrative of the pending confl ict. The commission, after four full days of heated discussion, decided to reject forty-three new projects that had already been approved by on-site evaluators, accepting the thesis, also voiced by the lawyers’ organization (OAB), that the government had the right, at any time, to establish higher standards for programmes to enter the system. Surprisingly, in the following days, this diffi cult and important decision was hardly news. The real news was that the Ministry of Education had


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approved ten new law programmes, despite the negative opinions of the organization.

A recent study published by the University Observatory at Cândido Mendes University in Rio de Janeiro, sheds some new light on the nature of this confl ict. The study shows that in Brazil, in most majors, large percentages of graduates do not hold jobs in the specifi c profession for which they prepared themselves during their college years (Table 3.3).

Table 3.3 Percentage of graduates who hold jobs related to undergraduate majors*

Undergraduate major Percentage of professionals with jobs related to undergraduate major

Medicine 75.1Pedagogy 56.2Letters 54.7Law 51.3Administration 46.4Accounting 39.8Engineering 33.1Communication 27.7* Data refer to professionals interviewed in the year 2000.Source: University Observatory, Cândido Mendes University, Rio de Janeiro. Based on IBGE’s census data.

A recent study made public by the Brazilian Ministry of Education shows that, except for physics and chemistry, colleges are producing graduates in the teaching professions in larger numbers than the demand for teachers in primary and high schools together. The study also shows that many of these professionals move toward other majors, where social and economic opportunities seem to be more advantageous. Thus, the physical education teacher opens his own gym, becomes a personal trainer, a soccer referee, a volleyball coach in Madagascar; the language teacher opens his own language school – where he may not teach at all – translates books, writes articles for international magazines, and so forth; the Portuguese teacher chooses to work for a newspaper, as an editor of the culture section, tries his hand at fi ction, writes political manifestoes and ends up becoming a leader of the local radical party, and so on. If it is true, as so many studies have shown, that the


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level of education is directly related to income, or as Boyer writes, “The bottom line is that those who complete college are not only more likely to be employed, they will probably earn more – a lot more – than those who do not go to college” (2003: 163), it is also true that too little has been made of this astonishing post-college professional mobility. The fact that only 75 per cent of those trained in medicine work as medical doctors; 33 per cent of the engineers work as engineers; 51.3 per cent of law graduates work as lawyers or other law-related majors, shows that not only is there a demand in society for more professionals than college has so far been able to produce, but that professional mobility is only possible at this rate because individuals have acquired the knowledge and developed the skills and the competence to face up to new challenges and succeed.

This view is in clear confl ict with the conservative, elitist and corporative agenda, which puts forth the idea of educational downsizing, when in fact data indicate that the opposite is needed, i.e. like nature, which depends on surplus seeds to assure its survival, society needs a surplus of highly qualifi ed citizens in all fi elds of knowledge so that they may fi ll up the newly created spaces in emerging fi elds of highly creative and rapidly changing societies. According to Boyer, “The greatest danger to higher education in the modern era is ... the failure of colleges and universities to respond to the expanding role of higher education” (2003: 169). And what is this expanding role? – to move beyond the ‘professionalizer’ to become a ‘facilitator’, a generator of social and professional mobility and opportunity for all those who seriously look for post-secondary education. This would be advantageous for the individuals themselves, but it would also be critical for the advancement of the arts and sciences and for the improvement of the quality of life for all. In summary, when equity meets quality, a war of values is declared. This cannot be seen as a zero-sum game, however. We need both if society is to succeed. One of the greatest dangers is to succumb to the pressures of professional associations and of the conservative academy, allowing these forces to decide educational national policies.


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3.6 Equity and quality: PROUNI19 democratizes access and boosts quality

About two years ago, when tax exemption made possible the granting of scholarships to 112,000 poor students, in the same private sector where hundreds of thousands of middle class students had been studying, the outcry of faculty leaders was vehement: “it will be seriously detrimental to quality,” argued one, and “these kids will have to be satisfi ed with programmes for the poor,” or even worse “PROUNI will sacralize the concept that the poor should receive poor teaching,” argued another.

Many faculties, perhaps honestly, believe that quantity is a natural enemy of quality. They somehow forget that if this were true, Brazil would have one of the world’s best higher education systems, for Brazil still has one of the least equitable higher education systems in Latin America. Others, because they are staunch defenders of public education, would like to see the tax exemption funds allocated to the public sector (they forget that the exemption in this case is equivalent to about a fi fth of the resources invested in Brazil’s national student loan programme (FIES). Perhaps because of political convenience, some pretend not to believe that the solution for inclusiveness in the federal universities necessarily implies long, very long, discussions and negotiations with institutions where the faculty is the university, where the faculty is the governing body, and, paradoxically, the faculty constitutes the major bulk of the institution’s employees. In such a context, it is no wonder that negotiations may take years before a compromise is reached, with the consequent loss of generations of students. Since Brazil could no longer afford the luxury of excluding so much creative energy and intellect, the government decided to go ahead with the implementation of PROUNI in the private sector, while redefi ning its negotiation strategies with public universities.

19. PROUNI is a scholarship programme for poor students. It was created by law on 13 January 2005. Scholarships are granted by the government, in all majors, in private institutions, in exchange for 8.5 per cent of tax exemption. The programme benefi ts students who come from public schools or received scholarships for studying in private schools; students who come from families with monthly income of up to three minimum wages; self-declared Afro-descendents or Amerindian; active teachers without proper degrees in public schools; and the physically disabled. Scholarships are granted after a screening process that takes into account the scores obtained by applicants on the ENEM, the national examination given to fi nal-year high school students.


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The results of the last ENADE came as a surprise to detractors of inclusion policies: PROUNI students fared better than the rest of the students. Table 3.4 shows that PROUNI students (all poor and needy) received higher scores in the general education part of the examination, leading us to believe that they leave high school and arrive on campus with a better education than that of their classmates.

Table 3.4 Average scores in general educationMajor PROUNI students Other studentsAdministration 48.7 39.9Library sciences 50.8 46.0Biomedicine 55.0 44.7Accounting 50.7 42.2Economic sciences 49.7 43.9Communication 53.0 46.7Design 52.6 46.1Law 52.2 46.3Teacher training 50.4 46.1Music 52.2 45.8Psychology 50.0 43.9Executive secretary 49.9 42.1Drama 49.8 47.3Tourism 54.6 47.3Source: MEC/INEP/DEAES, 2006.

It is important to note that in 11 of the 14 majors shown in Table 3.4, the differences are considered statistically signifi cant.

As seen in Table 3.5, the performance of PROUNI students vis-à-vis the other students is not different in the specifi c professional component of the examination, which examines the content and competencies pertaining to the specifi c major choice of students.

Although in this case, the difference is statistically signifi cant, in favour of PROUNI students, in only six of the 14 majors it is evident that the performance of PROUNI students is equal or superior to that of other students in all majors submitted to the examination, destroying completely the myth that the inclusion of poor students in higher education would be detrimental to quality.


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Table 3.5 Average scores in the specifi c professional componentMajor PROUNI students Other studentsAdministration 40.2 32.5Library sciences 34.4 35.9Biomedicine 36.4 28.8Accounting 24.8 22.5Economic sciences 29.4 26.7Communication 41.4 34.0Design 47.7 41.1Law 34.8 30.5Teacher training 48.1 39.8Music 34.3 33.6Psychology 47.5 40.8Executive secretary 38.9 35.0Drama 43.9 39.7Tourism 47.9 40.4Source: MEC/INEP/Deae, 2006.

When at last we calculate the total average score of students, with all proper weights applied to each part of the examination, we fi nd that PROUNI students still have higher scores in all 14 majors examined:

Table 3.6 General average examination scoresArea PROUNI students Other studentsAdministration 42.3 34.4Library sciences 38.5 38.4Biomedicine 45.7 36.7Accounting 37.8 32.4Economic sciences 34.4 31.1Communication 44.3 37.1Design 48.9 42.4Law 43.5 38.4Teacher training 48.7 41.4Music 43.2 39.7Psychology 48.8 42.4Executive secretary 41.7 36.8Drama 45.4 41.6Tourism 49.6 42.1Source: MEC/INEP/DEAES, 2006.


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What do these numbers mean? Until further evidence is produced, they mean that (1) it is false to say that democratizing access to higher education is detrimental to quality; (2) PROUNI students were excluded from higher education not because they were unprepared but because they were poor; and (3) there is an urgent need to make democratization inseparable from expansion, especially on public campuses, where there is a deeply rooted belief that expansion is an enemy of quality.

The perception that escapes the majority is that being concerned only with quality, without considering quantity as part of the issue, means the preservation of an elitist and excluding system. The results of the examination confi rm that PROUNI, is so far doing its part: it has democratized access and improved quality.

3.7 Equity and quality: Distance education democratizes access and boosts quality

In 1969, when the creation of the Open University (the fi rst large-scale distance education programme in Britain) was announced, a member of the British Parliament, Iain Macleod, called the project “blithering nonsense”.

Jennie Lee, put in charge of the project by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, understood the strong resistance that had to be faced and also knew that the resistance was not only in Parliament: it was among public servants, especially in the academy. Even Walter Perry, the fi rst Vice-Chancellor of the new institution, confessed that in the beginning he thought that this important project of social inclusion was nothing but “a political gimmick unlikely ever to be put into practice.” It wasn’t until he got to know the project in depth that he was convinced of its viability and social signifi cance.

Faced with this resistance, Jennie Lee came to the realization that there was one thing about the Project which was absolutely non-negotiable: “I knew it had to be a university with no concessions, right from the very beginning. After all, I have gone through the mill myself, taking my own degree, even though it was a long time ago. I knew the conservatism and vested interests of the academic world. I didn’t believe we could get it through if we lowered our standards.”


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Today, almost four decades later, the Open University seems to have convinced most sceptics, showing that it is possible to combine academic excellence and social inclusion: the Open University was ranked the fi fth university by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education of Great Britain, ahead of the prestigious Oxford University. The agency considered that in 86 per cent of the university’s departments, visited since 1995, the teaching was of excellent quality.

In Brazil, despite this and so many other success stories in various countries (Germany and Cuba, for example), distance education is continually under fi re, with the argument that, like other inclusion programmes, it is bad for quality. Some will admit to its democratizing effects, by offering opportunity to those who, for some reason or other, did not manage to attend a college programme. Yet, they fear that distance education will cause serious damage to a system already facing great diffi culty.

Data from the last two editions of ENADE, however, prove this fear to be unjustifi ed: as seen in Table 3.7, contrary to popular belief distance education students have higher average scores than their counterparts.

Table 3.7 Average scores of distance education and on-site freshmen. ENADE 2005 and 2006

Majors FreshmenOn-site Distance

Administration 35.1 36.7Biology 30.4 32.8Accounting 30.4 27.6Social sciences 38.4 52.9Philosophy 29.8 30.4Physics 30.6 39.6Teacher training 41.0 41.2Geography 36.8 32.6History 36.5 31.6Letters 34.0 33.0Mathematics 29.8 34.0Pedagogy 39.9 46.8Tourism 43.1 52.3Source: MEC/INEP/DEAES, 2006.


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As can be seen, among freshmen, distance education students received higher grades in nine out of 13 majors.

When one observes the overall average, adding up the scores of freshmen and fi nal year students, attributing to them the appropriate weights, considering the different parts of the examination, the picture is somewhat different, although still slightly in favour of distance education students.20

Table 3.8 Average scores of freshmen and fi nal year students in on-site and distance education

Majors Freshmen and fi nal year studentsOn-site Distance

Administration 37.7 38.0Biology 32.7 32.8Accounting 35.0 32.6Social sciences 41.2 52.9Philosophy 32.5 30.4Physics 32.5 39.6Teacher training 42.8 41.5Geography 39.0 32.6History 38.5 31.6Letters 35.7 33.1Mathematics 31.7 34.2Pedagogy 43.4 46.1Tourism 46.3 52.3Source: MEC/INEP/DEAES, 2006.

Table 3.8 shows that in seven of the 13 majors, the average scores of distance education students (freshmen and fi nal year students) are higher than those of their on-site counterparts.

Since distance education is a very recent innovation in the Brazilian system, very few majors have fi nal year students, making comparison somewhat diffi cult. Nonetheless, as seen in Table 3.9, in the four majors in which comparison is possible, we observe that the scores of distance education students are similar to those of on-site students.

20. In this case, the comparison involves the scores obtained by freshmen in the two modalities and by fi nal-year students in the two modalities.


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Table 3.9 Scores in majors in which freshmen and fi nal-year students participated

Major Freshmen Final year studentsOn-site Distance On-site Distance

Administration 35.1 36.7 42.0 51.6Teacher training 41.0 41.2 45.1 42.5Mathematics 29.8 34.0 34.0 53.0Pedagogy 39.9 46.8 46.5 45.7Source: MEC/INEP/DEAES, 2006.

Over time, it has become clearer that distance education, given the new methodologies and pedagogical techniques at the disposal of teachers with the advent of new technologies, makes the learning process in the various fi elds of knowledge easier and faster. Moreover, it becomes more acceptable for distance education to play a positive role in on-site education, rationalizing the organization of curricula, making available new forms of content presentation, and developing new motivational techniques.

If Brazilian distance education follows the path of the Open University, as the data of the last two editions of ENADE seem to suggest it will, in a few years we may discover that the Brazilian Open University (UAB) will be among the best in the country. We will then have given another strong answer to exclusion and taken another signifi cant step toward what we all wish for: academic excellence in a context of democratized access.

3.8 Conclusion

Brazil has shown that it might be possible to achieve, within the established deadline, the two major goals of the National Education Master Plan (PNE) for higher education – to enrol 30 per cent of the targeted age student population and to have 40 per cent of these students enrolled in public institutions. Accelerating the rhythm of growth, new public universities are being created. Over 40 new campuses of existing public universities are being made operational, and faculty and staff majors are being redesigned. PROUNI, the ‘university for all’ programme, has proven very successful, with about 350,000 scholarship


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students already enrolled. REUNI,21 a new programme specifi cally designed for the expansion of enrolment in public universities, with embedded affi rmative action policies, promises new results. The Brazilian Open University has signifi cantly increased opportunity for students in remote regions – all these express the understanding that equity can be achieved only with the strong presence of the state in areas and majors where there is suffi cient evidence that the private sector alone cannot promote inclusion.

Still, if Brazil is serious about achieving its goal of enrolling about 10 million students in higher education by the year 2011 (right now the country has about 5 million students), the PNE has to become a priority for all active forces of society: the private sector, the academy, governments, and society in general.

Is it possible to enrol 10 million students in higher education by the year 2011? One can already hear the conservative rumbling begin: standards will be lowered and legions of unemployed graduates will roam the streets of our cities.

But it does not have to be so. To assure expansion with quality, the Brazilian Parliament and Federal Government created SINAES, an innovative national system of higher education evaluation, whose initial results became available in 2005. It is important to recall once more that if quantity were indeed synonymous with low quality, most countries in the world, including the developed countries, would surely have more serious quality problems than those of Brazil. The argument, therefore, that increasing the number of students will jeopardize quality standards cannot be sustained in light of the experience of most countries; it sustains itself mainly by a historical, traditional, elitist attitude.

In a similar way, as noted before, the anti-expansion and anti-equity argument cannot be sustained by the understanding that the market cannot employ so many doctors, lawyers, engineers, professors, and so

21. REUNI is a fi ve-year long government fi nanced project for restructuring undergraduate programmes and expanding enrolment in public federal universities. Presently 36 federal universities benefi t from the project. The goal is to promote inclusion by democratizing access, increasing student assistance, promoting academic mobility, stimulating pedagogical revision, creating new undergraduate majors, bringing success rates up to 90 per cent (from 70 per cent), and lowering the teacher/student ratio from the current 1 to 12 to 1 to 18.


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on. This argument, quite popular in the 1970s when countries like the United States were opening higher education to the masses, has been proven misleading and conservative. As much research has shown, because of the competencies it develops and opportunities it generates, higher education is not, as some still believe, a superfl uous commodity, but rather an essential public good.

Will many individuals not hold jobs directly related to the professional major for which they thought they prepared themselves during their years at college? Many will certainly not. Few will fi nd the jobs they dreamt of, but many will fi nd jobs they never even imagined existed when they arrived on campus. And many others will create their own opportunities, for they will have developed skills and competencies that they would not have developed if their education had been declared concluded in high school. If higher education does not guarantee that everybody will fi nd the job of his or her dreams, it is certainly one the most powerful generators of opportunities, and in the most unexpected and creative ways, it benefi ts the individual and society. What higher education will not do – because this is not, and should not be its primary purpose – is offer students a map that will guide them in a safe and tranquil trajectory from their freshmen years to retirement.

What Brazil has been discovering is that offering post-secondary education to all those who seriously look for it will liberate the creative energies of the population and make viable the project of a nation that imagines itself sovereign and capable of determining its own destiny among other nations. Brazil, like so many other developed countries, has to break the chains of an elitism that for so long has excluded so many of its citizens.

Brazil has been slowly migrating to a system of access to higher education that will be minimally comparable with that of developed countries. Yet, the country still needs to double its college population in the next fi ve years – a task that is extremely challenging but which represents a dream worth dreaming, for it will put in motion the dormant energies of the historically excluded.


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4. THE CASE OF THE AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES QUALITY AGENCY

Antony Stella

4.1 Introduction

Australia is a federation of six states and two territories. The federal government has signifi cant fi nancial and policy responsibility for higher education, while state and territory governments retain legislative responsibilities.

Higher education in Australia is currently provided by the following:

• 37 universities and higher education institutions (self-accrediting institutions) in Australia established by state or territory legislation;

• four other self-accrediting institutions – the Australian National University, the Australian Maritime College, the Australian Film Television and Radio School and the Australian Catholic University, established under Australian Government legislation;

• two private universities (Bond University and University of Notre Dame Australia) which have been recognized through State Acts;

• around 150, mainly private, higher education institutions which include theological colleges and providers with specialized interest in particular vocational or artistic fi elds;

• one approved branch of an overseas university (Carnegie Mellon University in Adelaide).

In Australia, universities are empowered to introduce new programmes that are consistent with the defi nitions of the Australian Qualifi cations Framework. This is called self-accreditation, and the institutions that have this power are called self-accrediting institutions, or SAIs. SAIs have rigorous internal systems for ensuring the integrity and standards of their self-accrediting processes. They generally have rigorous course approval and review processes in addition to accreditation by professional bodies for professional areas of studies. The Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee (currently known as


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Universities Australia) has set out the characteristics required of a university for it to be admitted into its membership.

When an institution is found to satisfy the criteria for becoming a university, the university status is enacted by state, territory or federal legislation. Once an institution is recognized as a university, it is listed on the Australian Qualifi cations Framework (AQF) and is not subsequently required to go through an accreditation process. However, each institution is audited by the national quality assurance agency every fi ve to six years.

Australian universities are generally comprehensive institutions offering a wide range of programmes. They vary signifi cantly in size, ranging from the largest with around 40,000 students down to the smallest at around 2,000 students. Most have between 10,000 and 20,000 students. Many universities are located in the major cities, but there is a signifi cant number located in smaller regional centres. The larger universities usually have a number of campuses. Most universities are organized on the basis of faculties or schools, but may also have a number of specialized and/or research centres or institutes. Publicly funded universities obtain their income from a number of sources: government, course fees, industry investment, bequests, and commercial activity.

In addition to the SAIs, Australia has around 150 mainly private higher education providers known as non self-accrediting institutions (NSAIs). These institutions must seek approval at both the institutional and programme level through the higher education accrediting function of the state or territory in which they are located.

In 2006, a total of 984,146 students (733,352 domestic students and 250,794 overseas students) were enrolled in Australia’s higher education institutions. Of these, 70 per cent (683,673) were undergraduate students, 27.5 per cent (270,449) were postgraduate students, and the remaining were enrolled in other higher education courses. In 2005, this number represented an impressive gross enrolment ratio of 72 per cent.

To ensure the quality of the higher education sector, Australia has a highly developed and integrated quality assurance system with responsibility shared between universities, governments, the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) and the Australian Qualifi cations


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The case of the Australian Universities Quality Agency

Framework Advisory Board (AQFAB). The shared responsibility entails ensuring that the higher education sector complies with various legislations and regulations. Equity issues receive explicit attention in the quality assurance mechanisms of the Australian governments and the national quality assurance agency. They will be discussed in detail in the sections that follow.

4.2 Equity policy of Australia

The national equity policy framework in the higher education sector of Australia is based on the assumption that there are factors or characteristics which, for certain social groups, inhibit access to and ability to succeed in higher education. Equity groups are identifi ed in terms of their under-representation in higher education compared to their representation in the Australian population. The specifi c equity groups identifi ed as being signifi cantly under-represented in higher education have been the focus of national monitoring and have determined the allocation of certain types of funds. There are three major efforts that have contributed signifi cantly to the government’s attention to equity issues. They are discussed below very briefl y to provide the context in which the quality assurance framework of the country operates.

The equity policy framework: ‘A fair chance for all’ (1990)

The current higher education equity policy framework of Australia has been built on the objectives set out in 1990 in A Fair Chance for All, published by the Department of Education, Employment and Training (DEET) of the Australian government. This document set out for the fi rst time a coherent set of national objectives, targets, and strategies for ensuring that the benefi ts of higher education are within everyone’s reach. The overall objective elaborated in that publication was:

to ensure that Australians from all groups in society have the opportunity to participate successfully in higher education. This will be achieved by changing the balance of the student population to refl ect more closely the composition of society as a whole. (DEET, 1990: 8)


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The major targets set out in the policy framework in 1990 were as follows:

• People from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds: All institutions to develop special entry arrangements for socio-economically disadvantaged groups by 1992.

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (indigenous) peoples: An increase of 50 per cent in aboriginal enrolments in higher education by 1995, and an improvement in the graduation rate of aboriginal students to a level comparable to the total student population by 1995.

• Women: An increase in the proportion of women in non-traditional courses other than engineering to at least 40 per cent by 1995; an increase in the proportion of women in engineering courses to 15 per cent by 1995; and an increase in the number of women in postgraduate study, particularly in research, relative to the proportion of female undergraduates in each fi eld by 1995.

• People from non-English speaking backgrounds: All institutions with a signifi cant number of people from non-English speaking backgrounds in their catchment area to provide tertiary awareness programmes and adequate support programmes by 1992.

• People with disabilities: Double the commencing enrolments of people with disabilities by 1995, including an improvement in professional and vocationally-oriented courses of 30 per cent by 1995.

• People from rural and isolated areas: All institutions in rural and regional areas to provide information programmes on opportunities in higher education directed at rural schools and communities by 1992, and institutions with designated Distance Education Centres to improve student support for isolated and rural students by 1992 to increase graduation rates.

The document acknowledged that achieving a more equitable higher education system needs a joint commitment and a joint effort by the government and the individual higher education institution and consequently elaborated the responsibilities of both the government and higher education institutions. The government asked each institution to develop an educational profi le as the basis for planning and funding agreements between the government and institutions. An integral part


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of these educational profi les was for institutions to spell out their equity goals, strategies, priorities, and performance measures.

For its part, the government took responsibility for coordinating national action that covered the following:

• developing a national overview of equity problems, current initiatives and gaps in provision as the basis for institutional strategies;

• creating an environment in which institutions can set institutional goals, and monitor progress towards achieving them;

• administering and evaluating specifi c purpose programmes that provide extra funds (because of the high initial costs of equity programmes) and dealing with equity problems that are more effectively handled on a national basis;

• monitoring national progress towards achieving the overall objective of equity in higher education (DEET, 1990: 9).

The actions elaborated in this document by the federal government had the support of the state and territory governments. In the decade that followed, the joint effort of the governments and the higher education sector achieved varying levels of success in different equity groups. Of all the equity groups, indigenous peoples have been the national priority.

Specifi c attention to indigenous peoples

Indigenous Australians are descendants of the fi rst known human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands. The term includes both the Torres Strait Islanders and the aboriginal people, who together make up about 2.5 per cent of Australia’s population. The word ‘aboriginal’ has its roots in Latin and means ‘fi rst or earliest known’ (ab: from, and origo: origin, beginning). This term is usually used to refer to those who live in mainland Australia, Tasmania, and some of the other adjacent islands. The Torres Strait Islanders are indigenous Australians who live in the Torres Strait Islands between Australia and New Guinea. They possess a heritage and cultural history distinct from aboriginal traditions. The eastern Torres Strait Islanders in particular are related to the Papuan peoples of New Guinea, and speak a Papuan language. Accordingly, they are not generally included under


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the designation aboriginal Australians. However, the more inclusive term ‘indigenous Australians’ has gained acceptance in Australia.

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy forms the foundation of all Indigenous education programmes. The policy has been endorsed by the Australian (federal) government, as well as all state and territory governments. The policy spells out 21 long-term, national goals, which are subsets of four major goals:

• involvement of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in educational decision-making;

• equality of access to education services;• equity of educational participation;• equitable and appropriate educational outcomes.

Each higher education provider receiving support from the government has to have an indigenous education statement (IES). The IES is one of a number of sources of information that enable the government to assess progress towards improved educational outcomes for indigenous Australians as defi ned in the goals of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy (AEP). Higher education providers have to provide the government with annual information on the following:

• objectives to improve higher education outcomes for indigenous Australians;

• policies, strategies and activities in relation to the goals of the AEP;

• plans for future improvement against each goal.

The statements also present information on any constraints that impact on a provider’s ability to achieve each goal.

During 2002-2003 the government took stock of the impact its equity policy and programmes had and initiated the higher education reform.


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Box 1. Indigenous education statement of the University of Sydney (2005-2007 triennium)

The University of Sydney remains committed to the empowerment and self-determination of Indigenous Australian people through education. The specifi c strategies for Indigenous education are:• To improve access and participation to all academic programmes of the

University of Sydney for Indigenous Australians.• To improve recruitment retention rates, academic performance and graduation

rates and successful outcomes for Indigenous Australian students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, especially in programmes where there have been fees or no Indigenous students.

• To provide curricula and modes of course delivery which are informed by current research and the needs of Indigenous Australian communities.

• To recognize and promote understanding of and respect for Indigenous Australian peoples, their knowledge and cultures.

• To develop research activities by Indigenous Australian staff and students, especially research which responds to the needs of Indigenous Australian communities.

• To develop the staffi ng profi le of Indigenous academic and general staff of the University.

• To promote and facilitate international understanding between and about Indigenous peoples on the basis of scholarship in teaching and research concerning Indigenous peoples and culture.

• To develop and maintain partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait organizations and individuals.

Source: Retrieved 29 September 2009 from: www.usyd.edu.au/learning/planning/indig_edu.shtml

The reform package: Backing Australia’s future (2002-2003)

The 2002 review of higher education found that the framework for funding and policy has become unwieldy, complex, and inequitable. The consultation process drew out a number of signifi cant problems, including the fact that students from disadvantaged groups remain under-represented in higher education.

To address these problems, in 2003, the Australian government announced the higher education reform package, Our universities: Backing Australia’s future. Equity is one of the four principles underpinning the reform package, the others being quality, sustainability, and diversity. There are over 70 separate reforms in this package, and equity-related reforms have a key role in it. The policy paper states,


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“While in recent years the participation of some disadvantaged groups in higher education has increased, this has not been the case for all groups. Additional fi nancial support, culturally appropriate and responsive policy, clear directives on equity programmes and performance-based rewards are needed to ensure that there are no barriers to access to higher education for any groups in Australia.”

Review of ‘Backing Australia’s future

To inform the review, the Australian government commissioned a study to analyse the performance of equity groups in higher education during the period of 1991 to 2002 and to investigate whether the defi nitions of equity groups are still appropriate. The project was undertaken by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at Melbourne University. The project report was published in 2005 and the major conclusions include the following:

• Special emphasis should be given within the equity policy framework to people from low socio-economic backgrounds due to the continuing extent of under-representation of this group, with recognition of the particular effects of socio-economic background for people from rural and isolated backgrounds.

• The equity policy framework should require universities to monitor and report the higher education performance of identifi ed population sub-groups as appropriate, regardless of whether or not the sub-groups are designated as equity groups at the time.

• Greater emphasis should be given in the equity policy framework to access for people from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds into the individual fi elds of study in which there is the most signifi cant under-representation.

• Greater emphasis should be given in the equity policy framework to access for people from low SES backgrounds into higher degrees.

• People living outside urban regions continue to be a signifi cantly under-represented group and should be given specifi c consideration within the equity policy framework. Rural and isolated males should be given particular attention due to their low, and dwindling, participation shares.


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• People from non-English speaking backgrounds as presently defi ned should no longer be considered an equity target group.

• Women in the fi elds of engineering and information technology should be retained as an equity group, with targets of 40 per cent participation.

• Men in the fi elds of nursing, society and culture and education should be designated an equity group, with appropriate targets set for their participation (40 per cent in society and culture and education, and initially 20 per cent in nursing).

• The overall participation rates of men in higher education should be monitored, so that, if the rate has not increased within two to three years, they should be considered as a possible equity group.

These fi ndings are under consideration for strengthening attention to equity groups. The above analysis did not include the equity group related to indigenous peoples, since there are other specifi c schemes to look into that.22 In order to enable higher education institutions to address equity issues, various funding and monitoring mechanisms are in place.

Again in 2007, the higher education reform package has been reviewed. Universities Australia commissioned a study in 2007 to assess the current status of participation and equity levels in Australian higher education of people form low socio-economic backgrounds. The analysis showed that people from low socio-economic backgrounds are still signifi cantly under-represented in Australia. In addition to the low socio-economic factor, rural origin and remoteness add to disadvantage. For instance rural, people of a low SES comprise 10.6 per cent of the population but only 5.9 per cent of higher education enrolment. Those who are remote and of a low SES comprise 1.8 per cent of the population but only 0.6 per cent of higher education.

The report also gives information about the status of indigenous people. They display low access rates and low performance levels. In particular, the low completion rate of indigenous people (well below 50 per cent) has been identifi ed as a particular concern for equity policy (Universities Australia, 2008: 2).

22. The full report can be downloaded from: www.dest.gov.au/sectors/higher_education/publications_resources/summaries_brochures/analysis_of_equity_groups_in_higher_education.htm


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4.3 Support to the HE sector and monitoring

Australian universities are pivotal in the country’s efforts to improve the circumstances of equity groups. Australian universities follow a suite of programmes to achieve equity and enhance their performance with reference to the key equity indicators, namely access, participation, retention, and success. They record success in some areas and fi nd it challenging to extend it to other areas.

Universities have been asked to investigate the nature of disadvantage within their own student and staff population and catchment area and to develop their own areas of excellence in achieving equity. The Australian government expects institutions to develop their own equity plans, building on the national objectives set out in the equity policy of the government. This approach allows national needs to be refl ected yet still lets institutions address their particular concerns.

Performance in relation to the equity indicators has been the focus of national monitoring and has determined the allocation of certain types of government funds. Institutions need to have employment strategies for staff to promote the recruitment of equity groups. In addition to government monitoring, incentives, and support through various schemes, the external quality assurance mechanism of the country has also made a signifi cant impact on the institutional attention to equity issues. Some of the current monitoring and support mechanisms are given below.

Requirement under the Higher Education Support Act 2003

The Higher Education Support Act 2003 (Box 2) provides the current legislative basis for Australian Government funding of higher education. Under this act, higher education providers receiving support from the Australian Government are responsible for ensuring equity of access. Supporting equity should be an integral part of the general operations of higher education providers.


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Box 2. Higher Education Support Act 2003

2.1 Objects of this Act: (a) to support a higher education system that: (i) is characterized by quality, diversity and equity of access; and (ii) contributes to the development of cultural and intellectual life in

Australia; (iii) is appropriate to meet Australia’s social and economic needs for

a highly educated and skilled population; (b) to support the distinctive purposes of universities, ...Source: Higher Education Support Act 2003, Act No. 149 of 2003 as amended, Compilation prepared on 1 January 2008 taking into account amendments up to Act No. 170 of 2007: 4.

Funding for equity initiatives

DEST provides support to universities for equity purposes, such as the Higher Education Equity Support Programme (ESP) and the Higher Education Disability Support Programme (DSP). The ESP provides funding to eligible higher education providers to undertake activities that assist in removing barriers to access for disadvantaged students and promote equality of opportunity in higher education. In particular, the ESP aims to increase the access and participation in higher education of students from low socio-economic/low income backgrounds, students from rural and isolated areas, students with disabilities and students from non-English speaking backgrounds. The ESP also aims to assist in overcoming educational disadvantage associated with gender.

The DSP consists of four components:

• additional support for students with disabilities;• regional disability liaison offi cers;• Australian disability clearinghouse on education and training;• performance-based disability support funding.

The objectives of the additional support for students with disabilities component of the Higher Education Disability Support Programme are to assist with high costs incurred in providing educational support and/or equipment to domestic students with a disability with high-cost needs. Support for the regional disability liaison offi cer component is improving transitions for people with a disability between


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schools, post-secondary education and training and employment. The Australian disability clearinghouse on education and training is a comprehensive website that provides information and other resources designed to promote inclusive teaching and learning practices for people with a disability. Funds will be provided to the higher education provider hosting the Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training as determined by the Minister.

Box 3. Performance-based funding for disability support programmes

Excerpts from the Grants Guidelines 2006 The objective of the performance-based disability support funding component

of the Higher Education Disability Support Programme is to encourage higher education providers to implement strategies to attract and support domestic students with a disability. The performance-based component of funding comprises that amount of funding which remains after allocations for the Additional Support for Students with Disabilities component, the Regional Disability Liaison Offi cer component, and the Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training component have been made to eligible providers. Remaining funds will be distributed according to the funding formula: Grant = (A / B) x C where A is the number of domestic students with a disability enrolled at the higher education provider multiplied by the retention and success ratios for this group; B is the total number of domestic students with a disability enrolled at all eligible higher education providers, multiplied by the retention and success ratios; C is the total funding pool for the Higher Education Disability Support Programme less the amount allocated to the Additional Support for Students with Disabilities, the Regional Disability Liaison Offi cer, and the Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training components.Source: Department of DEEWR (Retrieved 10 February 2009 from: www.deewr.gov.au).

The equity unit of DEST administers the funding programmes for equity. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are an important focus of national higher education equity policy. Funds are provided to universities to assist aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students through the separate indigenous support funding programme. Institutions would be accountable for implementation of initiatives to advance national equity policy and for the use of government funds. DEST requires institutions to report on progress.


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Monitoring against national reference values

Performance indicators and reference values for each equity group have been developed and the indicators are used for monitoring performance at institutional level. The key performance indicators are access (commencements); participation (enrolment); apparent retention from one year to the next; and success (units passed). The reference values for these performance indicators have been updated from time to time by the Australian government, and various schemes and support mechanisms have been implemented by the government to promote attention to equity issues. Box 4 demonstrates how performance indicators are defi ned for indigenous groups.

Every year, Australian universities are required to report their performance in key areas to the Australian government by submitting institution assessment framework (IAF) portfolios, and performance in equity is one of the four areas to be covered in the IAF. Equity outcomes in higher education are also monitored through the biennial equity visits to universities by members of the equity unit of the DEST (renamed the Department of Education Employment and Work Relations – DEEWR – since December 2007 in the current government). These measures have resulted in increasing enrolment of indigenous students in Australian universities.


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Box 4. Higher education sector indigenous performance indicators

Access rate – Compares the actual number of commencing Indigenous students to the actual number of commencing domestic students in any one year (i.e. number of Indigenous commencing students divided by number of domestic commencing students, expressed as a percentage).Participation rate – Compares the actual number of total Indigenous students to the actual number of total domestic students in any one year (i.e. the total number of Indigenous students divided by the total number of domestic students, expressed as a percentage).Retention rate – Compares the Apparent Retention Rates (ARR) of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students as a ratio (i.e. the ARR for Indigenous students divided by the ARR for non-Indigenous students). The ARR is the proportion of students who are retained in a course from the commencement of one academic year to the next (excluding completions). A retention rate of 1.0 would indicate equity (or parity) for Indigenous students with non-Indigenous students.Success rate – Compares the Student Progress Rates (SPR) for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students as a ratio (i.e. the SPR for Indigenous students divided by the SPR for non-Indigenous students). The SPR is the proportion of units students passed in a year compared with total units the students were enrolled in. A success rate of 1.0 would indicate equity (or parity) for Indigenous students with non-Indigenous students. The Success Rate data refer to the year previous to that in which it is reported.

Participation rate for indigenous parity in higher education (parity rate)The Parity Rate shows in any one year the proportion (percentage) of

Australian students that would be expected to be Indigenous, if Indigenous people were represented according to their proportion of the higher education aged population. The calculation of the parity rate takes into account the age structures of the Indigenous and total Australian populations as well as the actual age structure of the domestic higher education student population in the year. The Parity Rate is calculated at both national and state/territory levels and is available for 2001 and 2005 population data. Source: Retrieved 5 October 2009 from: www.dest.gov.au/sectors/indigenous_education/programmes_funding/performance_indicators_data.htm


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Box 5. Key movements in indigenous higher education in 2006

EnrolmentsIn 2006, the number of Indigenous students in higher education increased by

484 or 5.8%. There were 8,854 Indigenous students in 2006 which returns to the stability of student numbers in the 2001-2004 period.

Indigenous students are increasingly undertaking courses at the Bachelor degree and above levels. In 2006 there were 7,074 Indigenous students enrolled in such courses, an increase of 395 students or 5.9% over 2005.• Between 2005 and 2006 there was a 20% increase in the number of Indigenous

students enrolled in Other Postgraduate Award courses (up by 81 students) and a 6% increase in higher degree courses (47 students).

• Since 2001, the proportion of Indigenous students in Bachelor degree and above courses has increased from 67.4% to 79.9%.

• There has been a substantive change in the enrolment pattern of commencing Indigenous students since 2001 with an increase of almost 18% in Bachelor and above courses and a fall of more than 35% in non-degree courses.

Educational outcomes• Between 2005 and 2006 there was a substantial increase in the overall number

of course completions from 1,205 to 1,360 – an increase of 12.9%. Notably, most of these were at the Bachelor degree level, increasing by 130 completions or 17.6% in a single year.

• Since 2001 there has been an overall 29.3% increase in course completions by Indigenous students and a 43.6% increase in Bachelor degree completions.

• In 2006, Indigenous graduates had higher take-up rates into full time employment than non-Indigenous graduates, with rates of 85.6% and 82.4% respectively. This is an improvement on the 2005 results where the Indigenous take-up rate was 79.7% and the non-Indigenous rate was 80.6%.

• In 2006, the mean starting salary for Indigenous graduates at the Bachelor level was $42,575 per annum compared to $40,636 for non-Indigenous graduates.

Source: p. 104, National Report to Parliament on Indigenous Education and Training, 2006 published by DEEWR Retrieved 9 October 2009 from:www.dest.gov.au/sectors/indigenous_education/publications_resources/other_publications/National_Report_Parliament_Indigenous_2006.htm

In addition, approximately every two years, DEEWR hosts the National Higher Education Student Equity Forum. The equity forum provides institutional equity practitioners and policy offi cers an excellent opportunity to come together to network amongst themselves and with DEEWR and discuss the latest issues affecting equity in higher education. It is in this context that the external quality assurance


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framework considers institutional commitment and performance regarding the equity goals the institutions have set for themselves.

4.4 EQA and equity issues

The Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA), the principal national quality assurance agency of the Australian higher education sector, which audits the Australian universities once in fi ve years, has investigated the institutional efforts regarding equity issues and commented on that in the audit reports. AUQA’s attention to equity issues, largely due to its focus on institutional goals including equity goals, has shaped institutional attention in many ways.

There are four major ways in which AUQA makes an impact on the higher education sector’s attention to equity issues. Firstly, the scope of the audit process and the public nature of the audit report make institutions pay closer attention to equity issues. Secondly, AUQA requires those audited to produce progress reports on areas that need improvement and this again has resulted in a positive impact on institutional actions including equity issues. Thirdly, AUQA’s good practice database, which presents commendable practices noted in the audit reports has some good practices on equity issues and thus serves as a quality enhancement forum on equity issues. Fourthly, the approach to cycle 2 audits which is theme-based and considers how institutions have progressed since cycle 1 has an impact on institutional actions including equity issues.

Impact of the audit

(a) The ADRI approach

AUQA’s audit method evaluates aspects of an institution’s quality assurance arrangements on four dimensions – approach, deployment, results and improvement (ADRI) – and this has made a signifi cant impact on institutional attention to many areas including equity goals.

The approach includes the trail from an organization’s mission, vision and values (i.e. its overall objectives) through to more specifi c goals and the planned arrangements for how these will be achieved. The latter may culminate in written policies and procedures. Broad


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audit questions in relation to the approach to equity goals include the following:

• What is this organization about (in relation to equity goals)? • What outcomes is it trying to achieve? • What, if any, reference points (internal or external) are used in

establishing the organization’s (equity) objectives? • How does the organization plan to achieve its (equity)

objectives?• Does it understand its context and capabilities? • Are the organization’s (equity) objectives set against appropriate

benchmarks? • What risk management processes does it have in place?• Is the approach aligned and communicated throughout the

organization and more widely?

In understanding an auditee’s approach, an AUQA audit panel is likely to discuss with the auditee such things as the ways in which particular objectives have been decided, the factors that were taken into account in their development, and the stakeholders that were consulted.

The deployment dimension considers whether and how effectively the approach is being put into effect. Broad audit questions include the following:

• Is the approach (to equity goals) being deployed in the best possible manner? According to whom?

• What standards and benchmarks is the organization using to assess this?

• If the approach is not being deployed, why not, and how is this managed?

• Is the staff appropriately trained, and resources appropriately deployed, to fulfi l the approach (to equity goals)?

The results dimension looks at an organization’s results as a means of determining how well the deployment is achieving the planned approach. Broad audit questions include the following:

• Is the organization achieving its intended (equity) objectives and outcomes?


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• Does the organization understand why and how it achieved those particular results, i.e. are the results a consequence of the approach and deployment?

• How are the results reported and used within the organization?

The improvement dimension focuses on whether the organization is actively and continuously engaged with understanding its performance in each of the A-D-R dimensions, and is using this understanding to bring about improvements. Broad audit questions include the following:

• Does the organization know how it can improve (its equity outcomes)?

• How does it know this (e.g. through the use of external benchmarks)?

• How is it acting upon this knowledge?• Does the organization have a sustained history of improvement?

(b) Institutional goals

In following the ADRI approach in relation to equity goals, AUQA recognizes that the patterns of participation of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and the issues they raise for universities vary from institution to institution and from region to region. Each institution is different, and therefore AUQA contextualizes the equity issues and audits an institution on its own terms.

AUQA notes that institutions have objectives that refl ect the functions they have been given and strategies to meet these objectives, and investigates them. It also acknowledges that equity goals are explicitly or implicitly recognized in some university enabling acts, frequently in a regional context or in institutional missions. For example, the University of Tasmania Act indicates that its equity goal is “to promote access to higher education, having regard to principles of merit and equity”. Flinders’ institutional aims include to be “acknowledged as leading our peers in commitment and practice in relation to equity, equal opportunity” and its values include “a sense of community characterized by ... a commitment to equity, diversity and cultural inclusivity”. Another example is the Victoria University of Technology Act, which states that its equity goal is “the fostering of participation in


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post-secondary education for persons living or working in the Western Metropolitan Region of Melbourne”. AUQA audits investigate how well institutions achieve these goals and objectives with appropriate contextualization to the issues that arise.

(c) External reference points

In addition to auditing institutions against their goals and objectives, AUQA also looks at the external reference points to which the Australian universities have made a commitment. Since the Australian government requires all Australian universities to address equity issues and monitor their progress against nationally agreed indicators, AUQA pays attention to those issues. The data and analysis with reference to equity indicators given in the institutional assessment framework (IAF) often serves as a good reference point.

(d) Impact of self-assessment

As institutions start preparing for the audit, the internal processes get reinforced. Areas that need attention, gaps in planning, and improvements required in deployment get noticed. Institutions view an AUQA audit as an opportunity to refl ect and improve on current practices. They engage in a genuine process of self-assessment in preparing their portfolio for AUQA. The impact of this self introspection on equity issues is felt more in the case of regional universities and institutions that have made a commitment to serve the disadvantaged since AUQA audits investigate how well the institutions demonstrate these commitments.

(e) Nature of the audit reports

The audit reports that are made public serve as yet another instrument to give greater attention to equity issues. Each audit report contains a summary of fi ndings together with lists of commendations, affi rmations, and recommendations. A commendation refers to the achievement of a stated goal or to some plan or activity that has led to, or appears likely to lead to, the achievement of a stated goal that in AUQA’s view is particularly signifi cant. A recommendation refers to an area in need of attention, whether in respect of approach, deployment, or results, which in AUQA’s view is particularly signifi cant. Where such matters have already been identifi ed by the auditee, with evidence


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they are termed ‘affi rmations’. The commendations, affi rmations, and recommendations are the audit conclusions and they are known as CARs. Since the reports are made public, the CARs exert a pressure on the institutional actions including equity issues.

In providing external quality assurance of higher education institutions, AUQA contributes to public accountability on equity issues but also provides public acknowledgement of commitment and good practices.

Post-audit follow-up: impact of the progress reports

The follow-up done by AUQA after the audit adds another dimension to its impact. It is the responsibility of the auditee to implement recommendations and affi rmations made in AUQA audit reports, and AUQA assumes that the auditee will integrate these actions with its other planned activities. AUQA requests the auditee to provide a report on its progress some 18 months after the release of an audit report. The progress reports provide probably the most direct measure of AUQA’s impact as a quality assurance agency as they focus on the actions that have been reported by auditees as resulting from AUQA audits.

The analysis of progress reports done by the end of 2006 indicates that auditees have reported an average of over 50 improvement actions per institution. The average recommendation-to-action ratio can be extrapolated to the completion of AUQA’s fi rst audit cycle in 2007, where AUQA has made 816 recommendations and affi rmations to 39 Australian universities. In response, Australia’s universities may have implemented around 2000 publicly reported improvement actions and these actions include those related to equity issues.

In addition to the quantitative assessment of AUQA’s impact, compilation of information derived from CARs and the auditee progress reports provides a rich source of data that can be used to evaluate AUQA’s contribution to improving attention to equity at the whole-of-sector level. The overview reports commissioned by AUQA support the impact AUQA audits have made on the sector and this holds good for the equity issues as well. AUQA has also done a thematic analysis with special reference to one of the equity groups, namely the


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indigenous people; the brief summary is given in Section 4.5 of this outline. Another thematic analysis on Community engagement and social inclusion’ was published in September 2008. The analysis so far reveals that community engagement gives considerable attention to equity groups.

Box 6. Impact of AUQA audit: equity and diversity implementation plan 2007-2009 of the University of Newcastle

An active and enduring commitment to equity and social justice is a feature of the University of Newcastle’s approach to establishing an inclusive organizational culture. This commitment is evident in the Institutional Strategic Plan and related planning documents, and in the University’s record of success in helping identifi ed equity groups to access education and employment. Genuine improvements in relation to equity issues have been achieved, however the need for strategies to address issues of structural inequality is acknowledged as a high priority.

The marked under-representation of women in senior academic levels and in senior decision-making positions continues to be a sector-wide trend; this was identifi ed as an issue for the University of Newcastle by the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) in the 2003 report.

The Academic Division recognizes the importance of continued efforts to ensure a workplace that is free from discrimination and capable of offering educational and employment outcomes that are equitable and just.Source: www.newcastle.edu.au/Resources/Divisions/Academic/Equity%20and%20Diversity/Documents/E&DImplementationPlan07_09.pdf

Good practice database

While undertaking the follow-up on affi rmations and recommendations, AUQA is equally keen to assure that commendations are noticed and exploited in a positive sense. To meet this wish, auditees are asked to develop commendations that are high on ‘transferability’ to other organizational set-ups into good practices, which are added to the AUQA’s good practice database (GPDB). Feedback from institutions indicates that the GPDB has been used for benchmarking purposes and has been referred to when developing new policy and practice and when reviewing/updating existing policy and practice. The GPDB has many good practices on equity issues, and institutions give feedback about the usefulness of these good practices.


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Box 7. From the Good Practice Database of AUQA: Melbourne Access Programme (MAP) of the University of Melbourne

MAP is a three-year programme, running from Year 10 to Year 12, for a small number of students from ten schools chosen as pilot MAP schools. The programme aims to work closely with students, developing skills and motivation for tertiary study over the fi nal three years of secondary schooling. The three-year programme is considered essential and plays a signifi cant role in the formation of attitudes to tertiary study, providing adequate time for appropriate skill development and, on the part of families, planning to support students through tertiary education. The schools are chosen for having a good working relationship with the university but not having a strong history of students going on to tertiary study. Across the three-year programme, MAP includes mentoring from current university students, study and organizational skills workshops, parent evenings and on-campus experiences, including a residential school programme to help students develop an understanding and motivation for tertiary study and prepare for and gain access to tertiary education.

The fi rst MAP cohort of 67 students graduated from secondary school in 2003 and 80 per cent of them received an offer of tertiary education with 16 per cent of these receiving an offer to study at the University of Melbourne in 2004. Of the Year-12 MAP students graduating in 2005, 25 per cent received an offer to the University of Melbourne and 92.5 per cent listed ‘university’ as their preferred post Year-12 destination.Source: www.auqa.edu.au/gp

Approaches to cycle 2 audits

In cycle 2, AUQA follows a theme-based approach where two themes are identifi ed for investigation against the ‘whole-of-institution’ approach of cycle 1. The theme-based approach to cycle 2 audits may even result in equity issues receiving more rigorous attention for some universities. At present, one of the auditees has selected community engagement as one of the themes where equity issues have a central place. AUQA also samples a few recommendations and affi rmations for follow-up and progress made since cycle 1. If equity was an issue of concern in cycle 1 in an institution, AUQA audit investigates that in cycle 2.

Closing the loop

Working with the government has helped AUQA to enhance the impact of its audits. While investigating how well institutions achieve


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their equity objectives, AUQA considers information that comes from the various monitoring mechanisms of the Australian Government. Similarly, the monitoring mechanisms of the Australian Government such as IAF portfolio visits consider the AUQA audit reports to inform their areas for investigating.

Tensions that remain

Progress on equity issues is not free from tensions and challenges. There have been criticisms that efforts by the universities to redress the social and economic disadvantage of targeted equity groups presumes that they all share a similar aspiration for parity with some mythical elite groups.

In particular, giving due attention to the sovereign position of indigenous people is still a challenge in many institutions. The project conducted by Anderson et al. (1996) on university cultures, policies, and debates around indigenous issues highlights this challenge. For example, concepts, values, and protocols of the indigenous peoples are sometimes not recognized and appreciated within non-indigenous contexts. For indigenous peoples, this approach to redress disadvantage perpetuates the view that indigenous peoples as a cultural group have inherent characteristics, which invariably manifest as disadvantage within non-indigenous contexts. The report cautions that if universities’ commitment to equity issues is driven or constrained by their own notions of equity and social justice, the equity groups will continue to be marginalized. Institutions organize cultural awareness programmes, develop alternative models of learning and teaching, and work with community leaders to address this challenge, but the tensions remain.

While the above details present the general impact AUQA audit has on institutional actions, it is worthwhile to see how much attention AUQA has paid to some of the equity issues that are of national priority. Of the various equity groups, indigenous peoples have a special place in the Australian context, and AUQA audits place a signifi cant emphasis on how Australian universities serve the indigenous cause. Consequently, there are substantive inputs in the audit reports on indigenous issues, and AUQA did a thematic analysis of the audit reports with reference to an indigenous focus. The brief summary of that analysis is given in the following pages.


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4.5 The indigenous focus

In 2006, AUQA analysed public audit reports on successful models followed by Australian universities to serve the cause of indigenous issues. It also identifi ed areas where universities have been encouraged to improve their performance in relation to their objectives of promoting indigenous education, and to enhance the indicators. By mid-2007 AUQA completed cycle 1 audits of all Australian universities. Therefore, for the purposes of this case study the analysis on indigenous issues was updated to cover all the cycle 1 audit reports (39 in total). The fi ndings of the updated thematic analysis are given below. They must be seen in the context of the nature of AUQA audits. The list of the Australian universities considered for this analysis can be found in Appendix 4.1.

Signals from the audit reports

The analysis shows that the commendations and recommendations can be classifi ed under fi ve major headings: planning, support structures, curriculum, outreach and research.

Planning: The audit conclusions have commented on the level of commitment of the Australian universities to the indigenous cause, the strategic plans they have developed to address indigenous issues, the resources and leadership they are able to provide, and the effectiveness or otherwise of monitoring and co-ordinating various institutional efforts. The analysis indicated that all institutions have an indigenous plan. This is partly due to institutional commitment to indigenous development and partly to the Australian Government’s requirement for such a plan. The level of commitment to indigenous outcomes varies signifi cantly between institutions. In many universities, the plan is a live document, subject to active attempts at implementation, but in others the plan appears to have no active effect. AUQA encountered dedicated people right across the sector, and found pockets of good practice. However, the people and practices are isolated within the respective institutions and are not replicated across the system.

Support: The audit reports comment on the advisory committees and institutional structures, and the welfare support services to indigenous students and staff. In the case of some institutions, the


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indigenous support units that started as administrative units for support services to indigenous students and staff, and have evolved into centres of knowledge on indigenous issues.

Curriculum: The audit conclusions comment on the efforts of the universities to offer courses concerning indigenous issues, embedding indigenous perspectives across the curriculum, and creating pathways for indigenous students. While the Australian universities have adopted a variety of ways to offer ‘indigenous subjects’, the need to ensure a common understanding of indigenous perspectives has been voiced in a few reports. The general picture that emerges is one of diversity in approaches to strengthen the link between the preparatory programmes and higher education programmes as well as the articulation arrangements between vocational and higher education courses to support indigenous students.

Outreach: The audit reports comment on the strategies such as targeting the indigenous students in schools, promoting fl exible learning, awareness building in non-indigenous communities, promoting interaction with the indigenous community and valuing indigenous people, and indigenous employment. In general, a number of local initiatives aimed at linking the institution with indigenous communities have been acknowledged as good practices in the audit reports.

Research: The audit reports comment on how universities have strategies for lifting the quantity and quality of indigenous research. Effective research training opportunities for indigenous students, scholarships and new pathways to research have been commended. In relation to research with indigenous communities, the audit reports indicate how some of the research models are seen as heavily focused on a particular model of research, and that there is opportunity to assist students and indigenous communities to discover mutually acceptable research models and further progress the reconciliation mission. Research training, support to early researchers and the role of indigenous researchers in projects on indigenous issues have also been given attention in the audit reports.

In summary, every institution audited by AUQA so far has shown, in overall terms, attention to indigenous communities and students, although this attention does not always feature strongly in the general


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culture of some institutions. Most Australian universities have demonstrated tangible results by establishing support units, schools or research centres specifi cally dedicated to promoting indigenous indicators and indigenous studies. They have achieved success at varying levels and some need to do more work than others in these areas.

Major areas of strength are the existence of indigenous objectives, advisory committees, and support centres. Most Australian universities have demonstrated tangible results by establishing support units, schools or research centres specifi cally dedicated to promoting indigenous indicators and indigenous studies. In addition, fl exible approaches to suit the learning styles of indigenous students, indigenous subjects, special drives, and personalized support have emerged as strengths.

Areas in particular need of attention are the need for university-wide co-ordination of activities, more system-wide approaches and explicit sharing of good practices, better use of equity indicators to guide planning and actions, development of indigenous staff, and enhancement of the cultural context. Other gaps noted include locating accountability and responsibility with a senior staff member, indigenous membership of governing boards, awareness of indigenous aspects among other staff and units, research models for indigenous issues, and indigenous staff recruitment.

Good practices in indigenous issues

Every audit report contains a list of commendations, affi rmations and recommendations (known as CARs). Together, the 39 audit reports have 514 commendations, out of which 19 are related to indigenous issues, constituting 4 per cent of the total. Since AUQA audits have a large number of considerations in understanding institutional quality, the coverage of 4 per cent in the commendations regarding indigenous issues can be seen as a positive indicator.

Very closely linked to the commendations found in the audit reports is the good practice database (GPDB) of AUQA. It contains details of commendations that have high value of transferability in other contexts. Out of the 19 commendations on indigenous issues of the 39 audit reports, 9 have been selected by AUQA as appropriate for wider promulgation and potential transfer.


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Box 8. From the good practice database of AUQA: supporting the indigenous cause

GPDB has details regarding the following practices commended by the audit panels: supporting indigenous students: graduating indigenous professionals• TRACKS: Indigenous Tertiary Preparation Programme;• helping indigenous students to achieve success;• strategic commitment to indigenous education and development;• indigenous support and initiatives;• liaison with secondary schools;• Institute of Koorie Education’s community-based learning model;• educational support programme for indigenous Australians;• indigenous learning, spirituality and research centre.Source: Good practice database of AUQA: www.auqa.edu.au/gp/search/index.php

AUQA views the GPDB as one of the most effective means of enhancing quality. Since the launch of the GPDB in 2003, individual good practices have been accessed over 60,000 times. Feedback collected from the HE sector indicates that GPDB is seen as a good source of reference. In general, the GPDB has been used by institutions for benchmarking purposes. It has been referred to when developing new policy and practice and when reviewing and updating existing policy and practice. It is reasonable to expect that good practices on indigenous issues have helped institutions to learn from the experience of others.

4.6 Attention to other equity issues

While attention to indigenous issues has a very signifi cant place in the joint efforts of the government and higher education institutions, the other equity groups have also received due attention. Most universities have a separate unit with responsibility for provision of advice and services in relation to equity, frequently designated as an Equal Opportunity Unit. However, a range of other operational units also provides equity services to the students and staff of institutions. Student support units, such as study skills support groups, health and counselling units, and distance education centres, often provide academic and social support in concert with the equity offi ce.


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General audit conclusions on equity issues

The audit reports provide many observations and major conclusions on how well these units address equity issues. These observations have infl uenced institutional behaviour. For example, the progress reports indicate actions aimed at achieving gender equity in senior appointments; enabling women in research; supporting NESB students; supporting students from low socio-economic backgrounds; special pathways to help students from rural and remote areas, and attending to the needs of students with special needs (disabilities).

A large number of audit conclusions have commented in general about serving the community and local region. Some examples of audit conclusions on institutional performance23 in general on equity issues and serving the community are as follows:

• AUQA commends the University for its clear demonstration of social justice and equity and community engagement principles, for example through initiatives such as the nursing programmes at the Peel campus.24

• AUQA commends the University for its commitment to equity, equal employment opportunity, diversity and cultural inclusivity, and in particular for its outcomes in access and participation of students with a disability and development of a Cultural Diversity and Inclusive Practice Toolkit.25

• AUQA commends the University for its manifest commitment to equity and access which allows individuals and groups who might otherwise not be able to participate in higher education to do so.

• AUQA commends the University for providing an environment in which individual staff are able to pursue excellence in teaching, research, service and equity and be recognized for their achievements.

• AUQA commends the University for the range and quality of the enabling and foundation units, particularly in terms of the way in which they assist students in various equity categories and from

23. The commendations and recommendations quoted in this chapter are with reference to various universities, but while quoting them, the university identity has been removed. For example, University of Melbourne is given as just ‘University,’ as is the University of Tasmania.

24. For details of this initiative, refer to the AUQA Audit Report of Murdoch University.25. For details of this initiative, refer to the AUQA Audit Report of Flinders University.


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disadvantaged and lower socio-economic backgrounds to enter the university through multiple mechanisms.

• AUQA commends the University for the successful implementation of the Melbourne Access Programme and the Access Melbourne scheme, and the consequent progress towards the achievement of its equity targets for student enrolment.

• AUQA recommends that in line with its objective for ‘Equity, Access and Participation’ in the Millennium Document, the University be more systematic with respect to planning for equity and the monitoring of performance of equity outcomes against clear targets.

• AUQA recommends that the University articulate the ways in which student equity and access objectives contribute to the achievement of its vision and that it develop a stronger planning framework, with internally-set targets, for achieving improved equity and access outcomes.

There are also comments specifi c to equity groups, and women as an equity group have received signifi cant attention.

Women as an equity group

Next to indigenous issues, the gender issue has been given due recognition. Some examples of audit conclusions on women as an equity group are as follows:

• AUQA commends the university for having successfully promulgated good awareness of equity issues, and for the initiatives taken by the university to increase the number of women in senior roles.

• AUQA commends the university for its ongoing commitment to the Gender Equity Project26 and for the outcomes achieved to date.

• AUQA commends the university for its commitment to equity and diversity in staff employment and in particular for its support for women and indigenous staff.

26. For details of this initiative, refer to the AUQA Audit Report of the University of New South Wales.


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• AUQA commends the university for its Women in Leadership and Career Development for women programmes.27

• AUQA affi rms the university decision to introduce a suite of programmes to improve the university’s equity performance; including identifying gender targets for senior academic and management appointments, and indigenous and NESB28 students.

• AUQA affi rms the university’s recognition of its challenges in regard to gender and age balance of staff.

• AUQA recommends that the university more clearly defi ne its commitment to gender equity, and urgently implement an action plan to provide opportunities for women to advance in their careers and in a range of leadership roles across the university.

These comments have resulted in a large number of institutional actions, such as a programme for leadership development for women. One of the universities started an ‘enabling women in research’ programme which is a 9- to 12-month programme for enhancing the research capacity of women. Another example is a strategic re-profi ling fund with the primary objective of providing assistance to schools in reshaping their academic staff profi le to redress the gender imbalance in senior academic appointments across the University.

The mentoring programme for academic women of another university provides mentoring opportunities to nominated female academic staff. The aim of the programme is to assist in the career progression of women staff by increasing awareness of networks and information, improving performance in key portfolios, providing thorough and comprehensive support for protégées and mentors over the time of the scheme and presenting an opportunity for senior academic leaders to acknowledge, affi rm, and support women as potential academic leaders.

27. For details of this initiative refer to the AUQA Audit Report of Victoria University.28. Non-English speaking background.


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Other equity groups29

Box 9. Comments from AUQA audit reports on other equity groups

On people from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB):• AUQA affi rms the university decision to introduce a suite of programmes

to improve the university’s equity performance; including identifying gender targets for senior academic and management appointments, and indigenous and NESB students.On people with disabilities:

• AUQA commends the university for its commitment to equity, equal employment opportunity, diversity and cultural inclusivity, and in particular for its outcomes in access and participation of students with a disability and development of a Cultural Diversity and Inclusive Practice Toolkit.

• AUQA commends the university for its innovations in attending to the needs of people with disabilities, notably through online access systems and advanced methods for signage. On people from rural and isolated areas:

• AUQA commends the university for its strategy to link with, and serve, the needs of its rural and regional communities.

• AUQA commends the university for successfully concentrating its efforts on research and teaching that supports the university’s rural and regional focus.

• AUQA commends the university for the harmonious and mutually benefi cial community relationships it has developed with the ACT and rural NSW36.

• AUQA commends the university staff commitment to community and personal development in remote areas.

• AUQA commends the university’s Connections Programme which fosters access and success for students from rural and remote areas and disadvantaged backgrounds.

• AUQA recommends that the university ensure that staff operating in remote areas are adequately supported, and that their activities are well co-ordinated.On supporting fi rst generation learners:

• AUQA commends the university for its ability to attract fi rst generation university students and its recognition of the diffi culties that these students’ families may have in understanding the university system and environment.

29. Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales.


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What is expected of the universities?

The emerging pattern in the audit reports is that institutions have either paid enhanced attention to equity issues or have initiated plans to do so. While investigating and commenting on these plans and results, the AUQA audit reports have commended some aspects and recommended further improvement in a few other aspects. By doing so, the audit reports have communicated certain expectations or good practices in addressing equity issues. If those messages or commendations are put together, to develop the picture of a hypothetical university that is serving the equity issues well, the following pattern can be observed:

The university:

• takes seriously its responsibilities to equity issues and for helping equity group students achieve notable success;

• recognizes and promotes understanding of and respect for equity groups, their knowledge and cultures;

• has successful preparatory programmes for students of equity groups;

• has cross-cultural awareness training programmes for campus community;

• has an effective secondary school liaison programme to reach out to students from disadvantaged backgrounds;

• has a support centre that ensures a concentration of expertise and energy for supporting equity groups;

• has programmes for prospective students from equity groups for high success and retention rates;

• demonstrates commitment to equity and diversity in staff employment;

• has effective plans to support staff from equity groups;• establishes a focus on equity issues as an issue of relevance to the

whole university community;• sets targets for senior academic and management appointments,

and student recruitment;• increases awareness of the Employment Strategy regarding equity

issues among faculties and departments, and to actively support and promote the recruitment and retention of employees from equity groups;


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• pays attention to embedding social justice perspectives into the curriculum;

• assures a university-wide understanding of equity issues;• resources the equity support units in the light of their role in

embedding community orientation and social justice aspects into the curriculum and research;

• pays attention to the development of researchers from equity groups, possibly including targeted funding, and including recognition and training of fi eld workers where appropriate;

• provides university-wide leadership and co-ordination in respect of supporting equity issues;

• establishes a constructive teaching, research, and community presence in the life of students and staff at the university;

• establishes strong links with local communities to reach out to equity groups.

These elements/practices that have been commended in the audit reports and the follow-up mechanisms on recommendations have made a signifi cant impact on equity issues in the sector.

4.7 Conclusion

Some lessons of experience can be derived from the Australian higher education experience discussed so far. These have been elaborated in the earlier sections and only brief generalizations are given below.

It appears that auditing against goals and objectives of the institutions is helpful in addressing equity issues. Traditional goals of higher education have always included some level of social justice and service to the community. Consequently, most institutions have goals and objectives that relate to community engagement and contributing to national development and some have a specifi c focus on equity-related commitments. Therefore, when the EQA investigates how well institutions achieve their goals, it covers equity goals as well.

The Australian experience also clearly indicates that audit panels have adequately investigated the institutional policies and outcomes related to equity issues, mainly because of the explicit focus on equity issues in the quality assurance framework. Since the audits start with


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the goals and objectives of the institutions, the equity goals of institutions have an explicit focus in AUQA audits. The indicative scope of the audit given by AUQA to the institutions and the audit panels includes equity issues, which has helped AUQA to communicate to the sector the expectations on good practices in promoting equity issues. This itself forms an important condition for cross-institutional learning and learning from each other.

As AUQA asked questions on how well the institutions were achieving their equity goals, institutions started directing their self-assessment and self-learning to address those areas as well. Since AUQA audits place a signifi cant emphasis on indigenous issues, the institutional behaviour on addressing those issues received more attention. Similarly, in institutions where the audit panels raised questions about women’s participation in senior management, there was evidence that institutions started acting on these gaps. This institutional behaviour indicates that the EQA agency has to prioritize what it wishes the sector to demonstrate in progressing towards equity goals.

The Australian experience indicates clearly that providing more information to the public about the audit outcome is helpful to bring institutional attention to areas that need improvement. This holds true for equity issues as well. AUQA audit reports are public documents. Therefore the recommendations made in the audit reports, which are in fact areas that need improvement, are in the public domain. This has encouraged institutions to actively tell the public how they are addressing those areas for improvement. They publish the action plans in their websites, and the AUQA website also links to them.

The study also shows the importance of setting rules for follow-up mechanisms to quality audits. AUQA’s experience with its post-audit follow-up reveals that institutions use the audit recommendations to make genuinely continuous quality improvements. Around 50 actions per institutions to act on the recommendations is a substantial effort, which was made possible to a large extent by the systematic follow-ups put in place. Without a follow-up after 18 months from the date of publication of the report, auditees might slumber into their routines and wake up only when it is time for the next audit. The follow-up warrants the institutions to act continuously and helps auditees not to look at


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audits as a once in fi ve-year activity. The focus on follow-up has also made the other relevant stakeholders question the institutional strategies of improvement. This has made a signifi cant impact on progress towards equity goals.

Another mechanism for follow-up is the dissemination of exemplary practices. Institutions vary signifi cantly in the emphasis they give to various aspects of equity issues. Their approaches to equity management are equally diverse. However, the case study indicates that, as a general principle, good outcomes are achieved if a combination of certain characteristics is present in the implementation. Sharing those implementation aspects helps institutions to learn from each other and adapt practices to suit their own institutional contexts. When the EQA facilitates sharing of these practices, this results in cross-institutional learning.

The Australian experience indicates that, increasingly, working in collaboration with the higher education sector, as well as the government, becomes important for contributing to equity issues. Institutions benefi t from the quality assurance agency’s perspectives to develop plans to address equity issues, thus giving a capacity building role to the agency. Working in collaboration with the government helps in looking at the broader picture of equity issues and strengthening the impact of nationally agreed policies, incentives and support systems to promote equity issues. It also gives a buffer role to the agency to promote equity issues without encroaching on the autonomy of the institutions.

It also appears that a policy environment that recognizes the equity issues supports the attention of EQA to those issues. The Australian higher education sector is clear about the policy environment and the priorities of the policy framework on equity issues. The policy framework has been developed involving a large number of stakeholders in various consultations. It is reviewed and adjusted depending on the progress made. Consequently, as parties involved in the consultation and implementation of equity policy framework, the higher education institutions have made a commitment to implement those policy priorities. This helps the quality assurance framework to investigate relevant institutional plans and achievements.


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Finally, incentives for good performance infl uence institutional attention to equity issues. The substantial support from the governments to contribute to equity focus has worked well in the Australian higher education sector. Both federal and state governments have support schemes and institutions that receive funds under these schemes must demonstrate how well they perform according to national reference values for certain performance indicators. There are schemes that recognize good performance, making institutions aspire for higher levels of performance. When AUQA audits the institutions, it investigates how they perform against the national reference values given by the government. Similarly, when the government departments monitor institutional performance against the national reference values, they consider the audit comments made in the AUQA audit reports.

This case study highlights that institutions have varying levels of success in addressing equity issues. They have success in some areas and fi nd it challenging to address others. Acknowledging the tensions that continue, institutions review their plans and try to make improvements. There is scope for further improvement in areas such as understanding and appreciating the culture, concepts and values of some equity groups.

In summary, this case study indicates that achieving equity objectives requires a multi-pronged approach with the following key elements:

• an enabling national policy environment;• resource support for equity programmes;• commitment from the higher education sector;• due place to equity issues in the EQA framework;• an environment that supports learning from each other;• willingness to acknowledge the challenges and work towards

improvements.

In a mature higher education system such as Australia’s, these key elements are well in place. The progress so far in equity goals is at varying levels of success. However, the emerging scenario is an encouraging one characterized by enabling policies, institutional commitment, more initiatives and forward thinking.


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5. INDIA: THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE NATIONAL ASSESSMENT AND ACCREDITATION COUNCIL

Asha Gupta, Jagannath Patil

5.1 Introduction30

The Indian higher education system has been attracting a lot of attention by policy-makers, educationists, media, and other stakeholders in India and abroad. At present, India has the third-largest higher education system in the world in terms of number of institutions. In 2006-2007, it had 407 universities, 17,973 colleges, 11 centres for open learning, 10.5 million students, and 500,000 teachers (Gupta, 2008).

The present coverage of Indian higher education has come a long way. In 1947, India had just 20 universities and 496 colleges with a total student enrolment of 200,000. In 1980-1981, the number of universities had already increased to 110, and the number of colleges to 6,963 with a total student enrolment of 2.8 million. In 2000-2001, an impressive 254 universities as well as 10,152 colleges were offering higher education to a total student enrolment of 8.4 million (GOI, 2007).

At the time of independence in 1947, India inherited the British model of higher education, which was highly elitist. Until the 1990s, only 6 per cent of India’s youth in the cohort of 18 to 23 year olds had access to higher education. After the adoption of new economic policy in 1991, and in line with the expansion of primary and secondary education, a sudden surge in the demand for higher education and technological skills was noted. Still in 2005, despite a huge system of higher education, the Indian higher education system demonstrated a gross enrolment ratio (GER) of only 11 per cent31 (UIS, 2007). It should be mentioned that the present policy target for enrolment in higher

30. The authors wish to give special thanks to Professor Sukhdeo Thorat, Chairman, University Grants Commission of India, who is a leading authority on the issues related to equity and quality, for his inputs. Some of the data in tabular form is taken from his public lecture on “Higher education in India: emerging issues related to access, inclusiveness and quality”, in the Nehru Memorial Lecture Series, 24 November 2006, University of Mumbai.

31. The gross enrolment ratio (GER) is the total enrolment in higher education expressed as a percentage of the total age group population of 18 to 23 year olds.


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education put forward by the Knowledge Commission is to reach 20 per cent of the gross enrolment ratio by 2020.

With access to higher education remaining relatively restricted, levels of inequity tend to persist in India, as in most other countries where participation levels are low. More precisely, in India several types of disparities tend to coexist (gender, other equity groups, and region). Equity groups mainly consist of (1) scheduled castes (SCs); (2) scheduled tribes (STs) and ‘other backward classes’ (OBCs);32 (3) poor-non-poor; (4) rural-urban; and (5) occupational groups.

These disparities persist despite the long standing existence of a national legal framework for equity established after independence as well as policies of affi rmative action and positive discrimination for the access of strongly underrepresented groups in higher education, such as lower castes and scheduled tribes. Until today, equity continues to be a major concern and a burning issue on the national higher education policy agenda. For instance, as recently as in 2005, the 93rd Amendment Act was passed and extended the existing quota system (reservation policy) of up to 49.5 per cent to all central universities, including private and professional schools (with the exception of minority institutions).

Indian higher education thus faces two major challenges: an equity/access challenge and a quality challenge. The quality challenge has arisen more prominently in light of rapidly increasing student numbers. Except for the few Indian institutes of technology (IITs) and Indian institutes of management (IIMs), in many of the public universities, desired levels of quality are not achieved. Those who are not absorbed by the premium professional schools have no other choice but to pursue higher education at private institutions that might be lower in terms of standards but expensive in terms of affordability. Most of the aspirants are unable to enter prestigious business schools and technical institutes primarily because of the prevailing socio-economic and cultural inequities at the starting point itself.

32. Scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) are population groupings that are explicitly recognized by the Constitution of India. In addition to the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, the Central Government of India classifi es some of its citizens based on their social and economic condition as ‘other backward classes’ (OBC). The OBC list is dynamic (castes and communities can be added or removed) and will change from time to time depending on social, educational, and economic factors.


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India: the contribution of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council

In response to the quality challenge, in 1994 two important quality control agencies were created: the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) under the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) under the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Whereas the NAAC was made responsible for assessing and accrediting conventional universities and colleges under the UGC purview, the NBA was put in charge of professional and technical institutions. There is no doubt that, since its inception in 1994, NAAC has made major efforts towards quality improvement of the university and college sector. In particular, NAAC has constructed a quality model and a quality assessment process that has been applied to numerous higher education institutions. By 2008, the NAAC had accredited 3,591 colleges (about 20 per cent) and 140 universities (about 35 per cent) (naacindia.org).

There is an ongoing debate in India and elsewhere as to whether quality exists in abstract terms or whether a quality model would not necessarily carry with it certain values, among which are social relevance, equity of access, equity of outcome, etc. A national mechanism for the assessment and accreditation of quality such as the NAAC may thus also have the potential to reconcile an expected contradiction between policies primarily geared at the enhancement of equity and those aiming at increasing quality. A socially relevant defi nition of quality and its enactment through a quality assessment process and quality model, may become an important mechanism to signal to higher education institutions certain understandings of quality in terms of critical inputs, processes and achievements. It may also provide support to higher education institution for the defi nition of their own equity policies and fi nally act as a mechanism for the monitoring of national equity policies.

In order to contribute to this debate, the present paper raises the following questions: to what extent are the NAAC’s understanding of quality and its quality assessment process responsive to national equity concerns and what contribution have they made to the achievement of national equity objectives?

With this overall concern in mind, this paper will start by presenting an introduction into Indian higher education. It will then attempt an analysis of current disparities in access and participation of different


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equity groups and discuss constitutional provisions before analysing NAAC’s approach in the area of quality and equity.

More precisely, this analysis refl ects upon the following four questions:

• Does the ‘affi rmative action’ agenda of the government affect the assessment and accreditation process of the NAAC in a major way?

• What are the critical indicators and tools employed by the NAAC to ensure equity while assuring quality of higher education? Is it an appropriate model or does it need any further improvement?

• Can quality assurance (QA) by the NAAC infl uence the action of the higher education institutions (HEIs) in India in addressing equity issues?

• What are the possible ways and means to enhance the role of the NAAC in promoting equity in higher education in India?

5.2 Higher education in India

Expansion of higher education in India

The history of modern higher education started more than 150 years ago when universities were established in the towns of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. The number of universities proliferated during the period after independence in 1947, as can be seen from Table 5.1. The total number of universities increased 15-fold between 1950 and 2004. More interestingly, the increase continued to accelerate after 2000. While it took 50 years to add 57 universities between 1950 and 2000, it took only fi ve years to add the next 153.

The universities in India include central universities established by an act of the national parliament and directly under the federal government, state universities established by an act of the state legislature and deemed universities. Recently, several private universities have also been established. However, more than half of the universities are established by state governments.


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Table 5.1 Growth of institutions and enrolment in higher education

Year Universities* Colleges Enrolment (millions)1950-1951 27 578 0.171960-1961 45 1,819 0.561970-1971 82 3,277 1.961980-1981 110 6,963** 2.81990-1991 184 5,728 4.92000-2001 254 10,152 8.42006-2007 407 17,973 10.5* includes deemed universities and institutions of national importance. ** includes institutions of post-secondary education.Source: Government of India, 2007.

Universities in India follow the British pattern of affi liating colleges. The colleges offer undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate level courses and programmes. However, they cannot grant degrees, which is a power entrusted to the universities. Each university will have several colleges affi liated to it. This is particularly the case at state universities.

The number of colleges increased 23-fold from 578 in 1950 to 13,578 in 2004. The increase in enrolment was around 60-fold during the same period. While the growth rates were high in the 1960s and 1970s (due to a low base), in absolute terms the 1990s, with an addition of 350,000 students annually and the 2000s with an annual addition of 525,000 students made a signifi cant contribution to the expansion of the system.

Governance and funding

At present, India has a highly complex, diversifi ed, and heterogeneous higher education system in terms of governance and funding. This has major implications for the process through which equity policies are derived and implemented.

India is a parliamentary democracy with a federal structure. It has 29 states and six union territories administered centrally. Prior to the 42nd Amendment Act passed in 1976, education fell into the jurisdiction of state governments. Now it falls under the concurrent list, implying that both the central and state governments can pass legislation


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pertaining to education, but in case of any confl ict, the central law will prevail. At present, the major cost of higher education is borne by state governments, and they are held responsible for enhancing access as well as equity in the wake of massifi cation of higher education.

Nevertheless, the central government’s regulatory role has increased as far as access, equity, quality, and relevance are concerned. Though higher education in India remains the collective responsibility of the federal and state governments, instead of coming together, the Indian federal system is designed to hold it together. With this in mind, the government established the University Grants Commission in 1956 to coordinate university education, determine and maintain standards through funding, and perform other control mechanisms. Later, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and, more recently, the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) and the NAAC were created. Through their respective mandates, all federal agencies are supposed to contribute to overall systems co-ordination.

At the time of independence in 1947, about 49.5 per cent of the funding came from private sources, but later public funding of higher education became the rule. By the 1980s, most of the funding came from government. Self-fi nanced colleges became more popular after the new economic policy in 1991.

Today about 75 per cent of higher education is privately managed despite being mostly funded by the central or state government. The central government contributed 26 per cent and state governments 74 per cent in the period of 2002 to 2007 (the tenth fi ve-year plan). Under the eleventh fi ve-year plan, the contribution by the central government has been raised by 70 per cent, a welcome increase (Patnaik, 2008).

The proliferation of private, including for-profi t private and foreign, institutions has led to unanticipated and unregulated growth of the HEIs on the one hand and has adversely affected access, equity, and quality, on the other. The private sector, including for-profi t, is not bound to provide access to all needy and deserving students. Since they are governed by the norms of affordability and profi t, they cannot be expected to be equitable either. At the most, one can expect better


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quality in terms of facilities and relevance. About 30 per cent of the students enrol in private HEIs (about 75 per cent in terms of management), both for-profi t and not-for-profi t, varying immensely in terms of quality parameters.

Table 5.2 Rise in the share of private aided and un-aided HEIs in India, (2000-2001 to 2005-12006)

Type Higher education institutions(universities + colleges)

Enrolment (in thousands)

2000-2001 2005-2006 2000-2001 2005-2006Public Government 4,342

(245 + 4,097)4,493

(268 + 4,225)3,443 3,752

Private Privateaided

5,507(10 + 4,997)

5,760(10 + 5,750)

3,134 3,510

Private un-aided

3,223(21 + 3,202)

7,720(70 + 7,650)

1,822 3,219

Total 13,072(266 + 12,806)

17,973(348 + 17,625)

8,399 10,481

Source: Aggarwal, 2006.

5.3 Equity issues in Indian higher education

India is divided into many groups, or castes and sub-castes as a result of centuries of practicing a form of social hierarchy called the caste system. About 76,501 castes have been identifi ed for reservation purposes (Chakravarti, 2008: 12). The traditional caste system led to considerable oppression and segregation of the lower castes and limited their access to various freedoms, including education. The reservation issue has generated a polarized debate. Those in favour of reservation for the scheduled castes (SC), scheduled tribes (ST) and other backward classes (OBC) have argued that in a caste-ridden polity and hierarchical society, it is the only natural way of providing social justice to all those who are deprived of the same access to education due to their socio-cultural background, economic deprivation, regional or gender-based disparities through no fault of their own. Those who are against reservation argue in the name of democracy and meritocracy (Gupta, 2006: 2).


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Disparities in the participation of women

Females constituted a small share (10 per cent) of the enrolment in the 1950s. However, their share increased over a period of time and currently stands at around 40 per cent.

The increase in the share of female enrolment is a common trend at all levels of education in India.33 For example, at the primary level, the increase was from 28.1 to 46.7 per cent during the corresponding period.

Table 5.3 Share of women in total enrolment in higher education

Year Share (%)1950-1951 10.01960-1961 16.01970-1971 20.01980-1981 26.71990-1991 33.32000-2001 39.42004-2005 38.9Source: GOI, 2007.

Women’s enrolment is also evenly spread (accounting for around 39 per cent) at the graduate and post-graduate levels of education in 2004-2005 (GOI, 2007). However, their share varies according to discipline. Female enrolment continues to be very low in faculties of engineering (around 23 per cent in 2002-2003), while they account for more than half of the enrolled students in faculties of education (52 per cent) (GOI, 2006).

Disparities in the participation of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes

The social groups considered to be the least educationally developed are scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Their share of enrolment was only 11.3 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively. Further, their share is less than that within the population, while the scheduled castes represented 16.2 per cent according to the 2001 census, and the scheduled tribes 8.2 per cent.

33. According to 2001 Census data, the female population represented 48.4 per cent of the total population.


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Table 5.4 Share of enrolment of SC and ST students in higher education

Year SC ST1990-1991 8.5 2.12000-2001 9.7 3.02002-2003 11.3 3.6Source: GOI, 2006.

Combining caste and tribe origin with other factors

Table 5.5 presents data collected by UGC in 2006, on gross enrolment rates of selected equity groups in 1999-2000. This table demonstrates the relative disadvantage experienced by different religious groups, rural/urban populations and occupational groups. The table shows in particular how these features interact with social groups (scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward groups in comparison with all others) and how certain social groups accumulate different elements of disadvantage.

Religion constitutes another factor impacting on the participation of certain groups in higher education. While the average GER of Hindus stood at 10.5 per cent in 1999-2000, and was thus somewhat above the overall general average of 10 per cent, the Muslim GER attained only 5.3 per cent, while the Sikh GER was as high as 11.3 per cent. When combined with social group, religion’s determining impact on participation becomes clearer. Scheduled caste Hindus showed a GER as low as 4.9 per cent, while scheduled tribe Hindus had a GER of 6.1 per cent, and the Hindu ‘other backward group’ GER was as low as 7.1 per cent. Those of the Muslim disadvantaged social groups were altogether still lower.

It can also be seen that urban or rural origin considerably affects the chances of participating in higher education. GER for rural students was only 5.7 per cent in comparison with the average of 10 per cent GER. The rural poor group constitutes a group of considerable concern showing a GER as low as 1.3 per cent. When combined with the social group, rural poor people from scheduled tribes had hardly any access to Indian higher education and a low GER of 0.9 per cent.


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Table 5.5 Groups with a lower enrolment ratio in higher education 1999-2000 (fi gures in percentage)

Social groupsCategory SC ST OBC Non-SC/ST

OBCALL

Religion Hindu 4.88 6.16 7.06 19.71 10.44Muslim 1.83 4.41 3.94 5.91 5.34Sikh 1.81 NA NA 18.94 11.28

Rural Rural 3.30 5.15 4.11 10.58 5.72Poor Poor 1.69 1.32 2.42 5.57 2.43

Poor rural 1.31 0.89 1.25 2.50 1.30Occupation Wage labour (rural)

(a) Agriculture(b) Non-agriculture

1.63 0.67 1.16 1.93 1.411.52 0.91 4.26 4.02 2.91

Wage labour (urban) 1.53 3.34 4.30 3.26Poor wage labour household (rural)(a) Agriculture 0 0 0.52 1.08 0.37(b) Non-agriculture 0.0 0.91 0.47 0.93 0.86Poor wage labour (urban) 2.61 1.93 2.70 1.80 2.38Landless (total) rural 2.96 11.46 4.15 8.85 5.59Landless (poor) rural 1.05 1.38 0.73 0.85 0.94Total 10%

Source: Sukhadeo Thorat, 2006.

Disadvantage also exists among occupational groups with the wage labour group bearing the most striking disadvantage. Young people from the rural areas whose families are below the wage labour group displayed a GER as low as 1.4 per cent whereas those located in urban areas showed at a GER of 3.3 per cent.

Little information is available on the retention and success of underprivileged groups. According to a report by the Auditor and Comptroller General, a substantial gap was found between the drop-out rates among the general category and SC/ST and OBC categories. Data shows that the SC/ST drop-out rate rose from 6.7 per cent to 10.4 per cent amongst the SCs and from 15.1 per cent to 16.6 per cent amongst the STs in the period of 2001-2002 to 2003-2004. Contrary to government efforts towards enhancement of access to school education to all those


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eligible, the drop-out rate is nevertheless rising amongst the SC/ST students (Chauhan, 2007: 13).

The above data confi rms what had been identifi ed by government and social scientists, namely that caste is the most important factor which lowers the chances to participate in higher education. Many Indian researchers and scholars have demonstrated that social inequality would be diffi cult to reduce in India as long as caste remains such a strong infl uence (Kemp, 2007; Thorat, 2006).

Regional disparities

Over and above this analysis of share of enrolment and GER of different equity groups, there are also considerable disparities in the GER of Indian regions. Indeed, regions represent different cultural entities with varying compositions of populations. The GER in higher education in 2005 was highest in Kerala (21 per cent) and lowest in Bihar (6 per cent). In fact, females constitute nearly 60 per cent of the total enrolment in educationally advanced states such as Kerala and Goa, while females are much less represented in educationally less developed states like as Bihar (25 per cent), Rajasthan (33 per cent), and Orissa (35 per cent), and so on.

An analysis of the Gender Parity Index (GPI)34 reveals a value of 0.71 in 2005 but varies widely between states. States like Goa have the highest GPI at (1.37) followed by Kerala at 1.22 and Punjab at 1.20. Some of the union territories such as Chandigarh have a GPI of 1.49, Delhi 1.30, Daman and Diu 1.82, and so on. On the other hand, states such as Orissa (0.26), Bihar (0.38), Madhya Pradesh (0.52) have the lowest GPIs.

In terms of the participation of scheduled castes, the GER was as low as 0.12 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir and as high as 16.3 per cent in Pondicherry. With regard to scheduled tribes, it varied from 0.63 per cent in D and N Haveli to 24.4 per cent in Uttar Pradesh.

The above-mentioned analysis demonstrates the many factors that affect participation in higher education and that individuals accumulate

34. Gender Parity Index, commonly used to assess gender differences, is the value of an indicator for girls divided by that for boys. If the value is less than 1 this indicates differences in favour of boys whereas a value near 1 indicates that parity has been more or less achieved.


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disadvantages related to gender, caste, religion and remoteness. With the opening of the Indian economy in 1991 and the operation of a free market economy, it was expected that discrimination based on socio-cultural aspects and slow regional development would be reduced while social mobility would be increased. So far not much progress has been made in this direction.

5.4 Legal framework of equity policies

Legal framework

In India, quota systems or so-called reservation policies have a long-standing tradition. Indeed, some form of reservation policy has been prevalent in India ever since 1830. The idea was to give reserved access to specifi c socio-economic and caste groups in all public and private educational institutions and public services, such as the Parliament of India, state legislative assemblies, union and state civil services, public sector units, unions, and state government departments.

After independence, the Indian Constitution signifi cantly extended and strengthened reservation, refl ecting Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision of a more egalitarian society, identifying the particular needs of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes as well as other religious and ethnic groups. The Constitution stipulated that 15 per cent of vacancies to government-aided educational institutions were a reserved quota for the SC and ST candidates respectively for a period of fi ve years, after which the situation was to be reviewed. This period has been routinely extended by successive governments. The Government of India has thus followed the reservation policy ever since the constitution came into force in 1950 to provide access to the individually and socio-culturally excluded groups through positive discrimination or quotas.

The Supreme Court ruled that reservation cannot exceed 50 per cent, but there are state laws that exceed this 50 per cent limit (for instance Tamil Nadu with a reservation of 69 per cent), and these have been under litigation in the Supreme Court. Later reservations were introduced for other social groups as well. For instance, the Government of Andhra Pradesh has introduced a law enabling 4 per cent reservation for Muslims, which has been contested in court.


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More recently, the concern with equity of access culminated in 2005 in the passing of the 93rd Amendment Act by the United Progress Alliance (UPA) government, the ruling coalition of political parties. A new clause, 15(5) was inserted into Article 15 guaranteeing the right to equality, which allows the government to reserve seats for the SCs, STs and OBCs in private HEIs (except minority institutions), in addition to the existing rules for public educational establishments. It thus provides for reservation of OBCs in all educational institutions, including private, whether government aided or not. The Amendment Act was passed after a Supreme Court ruling which stated that Indian States could not impose a reservation policy on private un-aided colleges.

More precisely, the Amendment Act stipulates in reference to Article 15 of the Indian Constitution,

Nothing in this article or in sub-clause (g) of clause (1) or Article 19 shall prevent the State from making any special provision, by law, for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the scheduled castes or the scheduled tribes in so far as such special provision relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the state, other than the minority educational institutions referred to in clause (1) of Article 30.

This Amendment Act can also be seen as a device to compensate for the long history of discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, region, or gender, despite legal protection through constitutional provisions. To do away with the reservation policy can prove too costly politically in a democratic set-up. Hence the government is bound to play an interventionist role in the name of equity as well as quality.

Special arrangements have also been made for providing fi nancial support for the education of socially and economically disadvantaged groups. Various mechanisms have also been created to implement these policies in a phased manner. For instance, the Department of the Welfare of SC/ST/OBC minorities of the Government of the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi announced reimbursement of tuition and other compulsory fees for all SC/ST/OBC students whose parental income falls below Rs100,000 (about US$1,200 per annum) in all public schools in Delhi (Chakravarti, 2008).


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In particular, special funds and scholarships have been made available to support students from socially disadvantaged groups (Kemp, 2007).

Somewhat in contradiction with the above-mentioned policies aimed at establishing greater equity, India has been one of the rare countries in the world where capitation fees (the huge fees collected at the time of admission) were institutionalized. After judicial intervention, capitation fees were banned, but the practice still continues due to the patronage by the local politicians-business-academia nexus.

In addition, new types of fi nancial obstacles to equity of access have emerged. Coaching for entrance exams has become a lucrative business in India, with costs reaching Rs10,000 crore (about US$2.5 billion). But not everybody can afford to take advantage of private coaching. First generation aspirants lack proper guidance from their families as well. Due to the prevailing cultural practice of families paying a dowry at the time of their daughters’ wedding, they tend to avoid sending them to expensive private professional schools.

Measures adopted

So far, the measures that have been taken over the years to promote widening participation can be synthesized in the following manner (Kemp, 2007):

• Reservations policies vary according to state and national priorities, e.g. the 2005 legislation to increase the reservations quota to 49 per cent was specifi c to central institutions. It will be for state governments to determine their own policies.

• Scholarships and other supports have been increased substantially during the XI Five Year Plan (2008-2012) for the benefi t of students coming from SC, ST, OBC and minorities.

• Novel plan: the scheduled caste and scheduled tribes Commission has come out with a novel plan of providing free coaching classes to the students coming from weaker and backward classes to prepare them for the Common Entrance Examination beside school hours.

• Special grants are provided to schools who admit students in large numbers from the SC, ST and OBCs.


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• Special recruitment provisions: 15 per cent of seats for the SCs and 7.5 per cent of seats for the STs are reserved in all government jobs. The private sector is encouraged to make special provisions for the recruitment of professionals from SCs, STs and OBCs in the name of social responsibility.

So far, there has been limited research on the impact of these policies on higher education in India in terms of either equity or quality. The problem is that most of the policy changes made in the realm of higher education are too recent for their impact to be quantifi ed or perceived adequately.

Though a lot of effort has been made to ensure access and equity in education in India through constitutional provisions, not much attention has been paid to ensuring quality of education and equity of outcomes, except through regulatory controls for establishment and funding purposes prior to the establishment of the NAAC and NBA. Equity of outcomes is a notion that involves not only increased access but also increased retention and improved success of all students. When it comes to equity of outcomes, higher education institutions play a vital role, since they set policies and measures that create a conducive environment for students to succeed in higher education.

5.5 The National Assessment and Accreditation Council

The creation of the NAAC

Due attention has been paid to systematizing the need towards enhancing quality of higher education in India to meet global challenges through the eleventh fi ve year-plan. The stress has not been merely on enhancing access to higher education to at least 15.5 per cent of the cohort by 2011-2012 from 11 per cent in 2005, but also on increasing access of all deserving, needy, and meritorious students to quality education on the one hand, and enhancing the quality of all existing HEIs, on the other. The idea is not only to establish centres of excellence, promote existing elite professional schools, but also to bridge the gap between various HEIs at the centre and state level and also within the state by making assessment and accreditation of all HEIs mandatory, including private ones.


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In 1994, the University Grants Commission established the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) under Section 12-CCC of the UGC Act of 1956 to control and improve the quality of higher education through the processes of self-evaluation, self-improvement, assessment, and accreditation. While UGC is primarily responsible for the disbursement of funding, the NAAC is directly responsible for quality control. With massifi cation of higher education, equity has also become its target, though indirectly.

The main objectives of the NAAC as mentioned in its Memorandum of Association are as follows:

• grade institutions of higher education and their programmes;• stimulate the academic environment and quality of teaching and

research in these institutions;• help institutions realize their academic objectives;• propose necessary changes, innovate and reform all aspects of the

institutions working for the above purposes;• encourage innovation, self-evaluation and accountability in higher

education (Stella and Gnanam, 2001: 47).

The NAAC was established as an autonomous body by the UGC with the prime objective of assuring quality as an inclusive concept in all HEIs in India, including private institutions.

Fitness for quality has been the basic approach towards quality, making it a holistic concept instead of merely an elitist one. The assessment by the NAAC takes a holistic view in the sense that it places assessment of all inputs, processes, and outputs of a given higher education institution under scrutiny. It is also holistic in the sense that it covers the whole of the higher education provision under UGC purview. Only recently, has it been realized that it is not enough to have a few excellent professional schools, such as the Indian institutes of technology or Indian institutes of management, but rather it is imperative to have “uniformly good performance across the higher education sector in terms of global competitiveness, relevance, meeting the demand for skilled human resources, equitable quality, professional management, prioritization of goals and sustainable funding towards future growth and development” (Prasad, 2006).


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By 2008, NAAC had completed the assessment and accreditation of about 140 universities (about 40 per cent) and 3,591 colleges (about 20 per cent) of the total colleges so far. The Human Resource Ministry is now planning to make assessment and accreditation mandatory for all HEIs, both public and private. Some of the Indian states have already taken measures in this respect. For instance, to ensure quality in higher education despite rapid expansion, the state of Orissa, has made assessment and accreditation by the NAAC mandatory. The state has provided about US$90 million towards infrastructure development despite its resource crunch.

The NAAC’s approach

The issues of equity, access, and social justice have been embedded in the very concept of quality by the NAAC as will be explained below. It is also concerned with an equally critical issue of quality education at affordable cost (Patil and Shyamsunder, 2007).

In particular, the NAAC’s approach to the equity issue has various dimensions, refl ected in the following key areas:

• value framework for quality assessment;• criteria, key aspects and assessment indicators;• self-study process by HEI;• peer review and onsite interactions;• assessment report and differential grading;• public disclosure of assessment outcomes;• post-accreditation requirements;• state-wise analysis of assessment reports;• special proactive initiatives.

The Value framework for quality assessment is the core philosophy underpinning the NAAC’s approach to quality. The NAAC seeks to promote the following core values amongst the HEIs in India (NAAC, 2007b):

• contributing to national development; • fostering global competencies among students; • inculcating a value system among students; • promoting the use of technology; • quest for excellence.


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Nation building has always been an implicit goal of Indian HEIs. The HEIs have a signifi cant role in human resources development, as well as the capacity building of individuals. Serving the cause of social justice, ensuring equity, and increasing access to higher education are a few ways in which HEIs can contribute to national development. It is, therefore, appropriate that the assessment process of the NAAC looks into the ways HEIs have been responding to and contributing to national development.

The core value – inculcating a value system among students – emphasizes the need for linking professional skills and vocational training with an appropriate value system. In a highly pluralistic and culturally diverse country like India, it is necessary to inculcate the value of respecting and not just tolerating the other at the national and international level (NAAC Manual, 2007a,b).

Since these core values, along with the other three outlined above, form the foundation for the assessment and accreditation of institutions, these amply demonstrate NAAC’s commitment to quality with equity. It assesses all the institutions on the basis of these fi ve core values through the data and information detailed in self-study reports prepared by various HEIs that volunteer for accreditation by the NAAC.

Nationally evolved criteria of assessment: The NAAC makes specifi c references to equity issues under different criterion statements and key indicators. Following are the seven criteria adopted by the NAAC for quality assessment:

1. curricular aspects;2. teaching-learning and evaluation;3. research, consultancy and extension;4. infrastructure and learning resources;5. student support and progression;6. governance and leadership;7. innovative practices.

These seven criteria are further subdivided into 36 key aspects, which provide the basis for the self-study report to be prepared by the HEIs for quality assessment. The NAAC has identifi ed these 36 key aspects under each criterion, which facilitates effective and objective assessment by peer teams. Peer teams use the assessment indicators


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provided under each key aspect as a reference/probe for an objective evaluation.

The criterion statements prescribed by the NAAC in assessment manuals are intended to serve as best practice benchmarks (Stella, 2004). The description of one of the criteria and two key aspects given in Box 10, demonstrates how the specifi c references to issues of equity are integrated in the assessment framework.

Box 10. Criteria in NAAC assessment manuals relating to equity issues

Criterion III – Research, Consultancy and ExtensionThis criterion seeks information on the policies, practices and outcomes of

the institution, with reference to research, consultancy and extension. It deals with the facilities provided and efforts made by the institution to promote a ‘research culture’. The institution has the responsibility to enable faculty to undertake research projects useful to the society. Serving the community through extension, which is a social responsibility and a core value to be demonstrated by institutions, is also a major aspect of this criterion.Criterion II – Key aspect 2.01 – Admission process and student profi le

The process of admitting students to the programmes is by a transparent, well-administered mechanism, complying with all the educational norms of the government. The student profi le is refl ected from the composition of the student communities representing different socio-economic and learner backgrounds. Criterion II – Key aspect 2.02 – Catering to diverse needs

The programmes and strategies adopted by institutions satisfy the needs of the students from diverse backgrounds including backward community as well as from different locales. Gender equity and admission opportunity for differently-abled students are also considered.Criterion VII – Key aspect 7.02 – Inclusive practices

New and creative approaches in education involving all stakeholders for adopting inclusive practices to promote social justice. Source: NAAC, 2007a.

The NAAC manual for assessment asks more than 300 questions spread across the 7 criteria and 36 key aspects. Out of this, about 24 are related to equity issues. The assessment report by the NAAC also provides evaluation based on criteria and key-aspects.35

35. The fi rst assessment was only based on criteria, whereas current format reporting is based on key aspects.


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Indian higher education institutions in their self-studies have the opportunity to report on what they think are noteworthy (best) practices relating to each of the criteria. The HEIs catering to the disadvantaged sectors of society often report practices under ‘best practices’ and might gain positive impact on peer evaluation. In particular, the self-study format of the NAAC is based on criteria and key aspects and seeks data on state reservation policy, access to disadvantaged student groups, remedial coaching, representation, and empowerment of women, and minority students, among other issues. Probing questions on these issues mentioned in the self-study form serve as powerful motivators for the HEIs to be more alert and responsive.

The peer review process, which involves validation of data and interaction with external reviewers, provides another opportunity to take stock and fi ne-tune institutional actions for equity issues. The claim for the provision of good practices as distinct criteria for assessment can also be seen as another motivating factor for initiating and launching new projects to promote equity.

Similarly, the assessment reports prepared by the NAAC peer teams, giving detailed analysis and recommendations based on criteria, play an important role. In fact, the institutional approach towards equity is refl ected in its reports. Compliance or non-compliance with national equity policies are noted in the report along with other institutional practices having a bearing on quality. Commendations work as an incentive to continue and strengthen existing policies and practices. Recommendations make suggestions on needed improvements and any unattended areas.

The grading of institutions based on criterion-wise assessment has proved to be a major stimulus for the HEIs to be alert, compliant and proactive as far as equity issues, social expectations, and community engagements are concerned. For the benefi t of probes by the peer team, each key aspect of criteria is further differentiated into a large number of assessment indicators. Some HEIs can score better grades on the basis of their focus in serving the educational needs of the disadvantaged/marginalized sections of society, even if, they happen to score less well on the basis of the criteria concerning infrastructure or research.


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The public disclosure of assessment outcomes, for instance, is another factor that can contribute to attaining institutional attention towards equity related issues. It is mandatory to make all the assessment reports and institutional quality profi les (criteria-wise scores) publicly available on the NAAC’s website. The e-governance and the Right to Information Act passed in 2005 have also made HEIs more transparent and accountable to the public.

The need to submit annual quality assurance reports to the NAAC keeps HEIs on regular alert, as these reports form the basis for re-accreditation or entry into the next cycle of assessment.

The NAAC uses the state-wise analysis of assessment reports as a major strategic tool for advocating systemic actions and reforms. It prepares these reports on the basis of institutional assessment reports in a particular state (province) based upon the quality parameters/expectations lying therein. Due weight is also given to policies pertaining to the reservation policy framework and so on.

The NAAC not only publishes these reports but also undertakes joint meetings with stakeholders and policymakers including vice-chancellors of various universities and key offi cials of the respective state governments.

Assessors have been regularly oriented to consider issues related to gender and disabled students and staff while arriving at judgment about institutional quality. The NAAC has also come out with a publication on best practices in community engagement (Pillai et al., 2006). This initiative has paved the way for institutional learning from each other and replication of good practices.

An initial assessment of impact

An analytical study was conducted to understand how the quality assurance process of NAAC is affecting responses of higher education institutions towards equity issues. So far, about 15 universities have gone through the process of re-accreditation. It was important to study the responses of those HEIs that are exposed to external quality assurance at least for one cycle of fi ve years. Keeping this in mind, fi ve universities which have completed one cycle of accreditation and which are in the process of re-accreditation were chosen for the study. From


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the proposals received at NAAC for a second cycle of assessment, fi ve universities were picked by way of random sampling for this study. The following equity issues were identifi ed for the purpose of this initial impact assessment:

• access to students from a socially and economically less-developed category;

• recruitment of faculty from disadvantaged sections of society;• support provided to weaker section students in terms of special

coaching and fi nancial assistance;• access and support to differently-abled (physically challenged)

students;• gender sensitivity and equity.

(a) Access for students from a socially and economically disadvantaged category

These issues were expected to be covered under criteria like: (1) teaching-learning and evaluation, (2) student support and progression, and (3) healthy practices. First assessment reports have taken note of practices relating to access provided to weaker section students as per government policy of reservation. The reports studied, however, had not made many commendations or recommendations pertaining to these issues. As a result, post-accreditation quality sustaining efforts were not explicitly focusing on these issues, either.

Interestingly, since the revised format of NAAC for re-accreditation has certain explicit questions about enrolment fi gures of weaker sections, efforts made in this direction seem to have worked as a trigger for action.

This is evident from the re-accreditation reports (RAR) of most of the universities, which have tried to provide data highlighting institutional efforts to increase access for students from disadvantaged communities.

For instance, DB University36 replies in relation to its admission policy,

36. Since the self-study reports submitted to the NAAC by the universities are not public documents, the real names of universities are not given.


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The University has provisions of reservation in admission as per constitution for the above sections of the society. A hostel specially for these section of the society is under construction. The students from these sections of the society are free to form their own associations.

JD University claims that some of the best practices of the university include, “creating opportunities for all categories of learners”, and “setting-up of special cell for SC/ST category students.”

To put things in quantitative terms, during the fi rst assessment by the NAAC, the institutional focus on this issue, as well as the peer review focus as refl ected in the report, was at an average level in four out of the fi ve institutions under assessment. The situation is somewhat better after one cycle of assessment, as the RAR analysis indicates an above average focus on access issues in almost 60 per cent of HEIs. In general, the seeking of data on access seems to have succeeded in sounding the alarm at institutional levels, which is helping to improve access to students from disadvantaged communities.

(b) Recruitment of faculty from disadvantaged sections of society

As has been discussed above, the recruitment of faculty from disadvantaged groups of society relates to a long-standing policy of the Government of India to provide statutory reservations to certain disadvantaged groups. Our analysis seems to indicate that in the fi rst assessment, this issue received little attention with only three out of fi ve universities conducting active policies in this domain.

Here again, in the revised format of NAAC for re-accreditation, which has certain explicit questions about recruitment fi gures of weaker sections, efforts are being made in this domain, which seems to have worked as a trigger for some improvement. Analysis of RAR shows that two HEIs have average, another two below average, but one has shown above average performance on this count.

In all fi ve cases, HEIs have remained in compliance with governmental reservation policies, and they have an institutional approach towards this issue. No special efforts are recorded with the exception of one university that claims to have a special cell to


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coordinate these activities. VD University claims, “The reservation roster is strictly followed for teacher recruitment.”

It is noteworthy, however, that data provided by all HEIs in the sample indicates that the current percentages of reserved categories of teachers are well below the stipulated statutory reservations. Average percentages of reserved categories among the sample HEIs are 9 per cent for SC, 1 per cent for ST and 9 per cent for OBC, respectively, compared to 13 per cent, 6 per cent and 27 per cent as per general norms by the government.

(c) Support provided to weaker section students in terms of special coaching and fi nancial assistance

The fi rst assessment reports and self-study reports (SSR) had primarily mentioned scholarships provided to socially and economically weaker section students. There was also a focus on providing remedial coaching to students from disadvantaged groups. The majority of reports did make mention of this while describing more generally student support practices of HEIs. This has put the assessment level in this study at an average level.

Criterion 5 of NAAC’s QA framework pertains to student support and progression. Under this criterion, several questions are asked to elicit data about support given to disadvantaged students. HEIs have used this opportunity to showcase efforts made in this domain. Government scholarships for scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST) students, coaching centres for SC/ST students and concessions given to economically disadvantaged students were mentioned in most of the fi ve reports.

JD University, for instance, reports, “The university has given 5,181 freeships, 1,074 earn-while-learn scholarships besides SC/ST scholarships. An amount of 50 lakh rupees has been earmarked for the purpose.”

One of the questions in the NAAC format has succeeded in getting interesting data on the impact of efforts on behalf of students from the disadvantaged section. For instance, DB University reports on this impact with the following data on the percentage of incremental academic growth in terms of aggregate marks (i.e. improvement in total


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score in percentage obtained in year-end examination) of the following categories of students for the last two batches of students.

Table 5.6 Percentage of incremental academic growth in terms of aggregate marks

At Admission On completion of the courseCategories Batch I Batch II Batch I Batch IISC 52.03 50.67 57.23 56.42ST 50.86 52.30 57.67 60.96OBC 56.34 57.74 63.35 63.07Women 57.20 59.39 63.21 63.81Differently-abledRural 53.63 55.87 60.41 61.33Tribal 49.64 53.58 55.65 57.19Source: Re-accreditation Report of DB University.

Such questions seem to be working as improvement triggers in many HEIs. However, some universities have not responded to this question, stating that such an effort has yet to be initiated.

By and large, student support and progression seems to have received attention of HEIs for various reasons, one of which is NAAC’s explicit emphasis on this issue with certain leading questions.

(d) Access and support to differently-abled students

NAAC has made special efforts to promote this concept in accredited HEIs in India. It has issued post-accreditation guidelines for facilitating entry for differently-abled students (physically challenged). The format of NAAC also seeks data on institutional efforts in this regard through various criteria, including infrastructure and learning resources, student support and progression, inclusive practices, and so on. However, the data available and analysis of reports indicate that even though there are some positive responses from HEIs, these efforts have yet to show concrete results.

For instance, JD University states that: “The library has about 50 braille books and 5,000 audio books for differently-abled students. The university also follows a three per cent reservation for admission to students from these categories.” On the other hand, DB University states, “The library has no such special facilities for visually and


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physically challenged persons.” Others HEIs have reported the creation of ramps and fi xing lifts in some buildings for such students.

The data analysis of the current sample of HEIs reveals that the average percentage of students admitted from these categories hovers around just one per cent compared to the statutory reservation norm of three per cent for differently-abled students.

(e) Gender sensitivity and equity

Issues of women’s empowerment, legal literacy for women and various other pro-active measures form part of the social reforms in post-independence history of India. Higher education also has witnessed this reform agenda, which is clearly refl ected in the current impact analysis as well.

NAAC’s QA framework has been quite pro-active in terms of women’s issues. Besides traditional queries such as setting up a cell for prevention against sexual harassment, conducting seminars, and so on, NAAC also asks how gender issues are refl ected in the curricula of universities. Moreover, it seeks information on whether gender audits are conducted by the HEIs. Apparently these questions, coupled with a conducive social environment, have shown some encouraging results in the improvement of gender balance in the HE sector in India. JD University proudly mentions, “The university has introduced subjects like ‘literature and gender’ in languages and ‘gender history’ in the department of history.” DB University claims, “The university does not apply any efforts in achieving gender balance amongst its students and staff. As regards students, the gender balance is already in favour of women.”

It is notable that as of now there is no statutory reservation for women students for admission, nor is there a quota for recruitment of women teachers. Still, the data analysis revealed that in the study sample 43 per cent students are women and among the recruited teachers this percentage is 19 per cent.

5.6 Conclusion

The above discussion shows that these fi ve HEIs tend to take a compliance approach when a QA agency like NAAC incorporates


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certain issues of equity into its QA framework. The introduction of queries on gender issues in curricula, incremental growth of aggregate performance of disadvantaged sections, facilities given to differently-abled students, and so on has led institutions to refl ect and respond in a positive manner.

Interestingly, facts and fi gures are also revealing about the reality on the ground. The average percentage based on data provided in self-study reports prepared by the fi ve universities presents a satisfying fi gure of 16 per cent enrolment of SC students and 5 per cent for ST students. However, in terms of the diversity of teaching staff, fi gures of recruitment for the SC category at 9 per cent and ST at just 1 per cent indicate that performance is well below national policy stipulations.

The NAAC has played a pioneering role in evolving gender-sensitive and disabled-friendly quality indicators in India, as it believes in making and sustaining quality as a continuous, holistic, and participatory process. It encourages all the HEIs to be concerned about students coming from disadvantaged segments of society including those with physical or mental challenges. It has the necessary inputs and directions from the Indian Constitution, University Grants Commission, National University of Educational Planning and Administration and the Rehabilitation Council of India. It believes in promoting equity and quality in higher education institutions in India through periodic interventions and quality assessments. It has given due attention to a disabled-friendly environment, reservation in admissions, fee structure, sports, and recruitment policies to promote equity as institutional quality concerns (http://naacindia.org/publications.asp).

NAAC’s project on gender sensitive quality indicators takes into consideration the compliance of these measures in both letter and spirit, while arriving at some judgment on institutional quality during its assessment and accreditation processes. It insists on sex-disaggregated data on: (1) the number of women students getting scholarships/fi nancial support and students getting placement; (2) the availability of women councillors, sexual harassment cells and availability of female doctors as and when required; (3) the number of women in all selection/promotion/academic/administrative committees and bodies; (4) the


http://naacindia.org/publications.asp


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details on maternity leave and crèche facilities; (5) the number of programmes conducted on gender sensitization; (6) the number of debates, seminars, workshops and conferences organized on issues related to women; (7) the number of leadership camps organized for women students and faculty, and so on.

NAAC interventions have aimed to improve the dismal record of students with some form of disability enrolled in all the HEIs in India. Though it is mandatory to reserve 3 per cent of the total places for the physically or mentally challenged in all educational institutions receiving fi nancial aid from the government under the Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation Act of 1995, only 0.1 per cent are actually reserved under this criterion. In order to stop the marginalization of students with disabilities, the University Grants Commission of India also launched two special schemes in 1999-2000: (1) Teachers’ Participation in Special Education, and (2) Higher Education for Persons with Special Needs. These schemes aim at exploring suitable placement opportunities for students with disabilities and also provide fi nancial assistance to enable them to pursue their educational goals. Being a welfare state, India is very much committed to positive discrimination to enable persons with disabilities to lead dignifi ed, economically independent, and meaningful lives.

Similarly, the NAAC has played a pivotal role in assuring that some of the directives provided by the University Grants Commission and National University of Educational Planning and Administration are put into practice by all the HEIs in India. It is now mandatory for all educational institutions to provide a disabled-friendly infrastructure; the lack of these facilities can adversely affect the ranking of an institution. Under this scheme, existing institutions can be asked to comply.

However, the present model of NAAC has certain systemic limitations. First, the Indian QA framework has taken a very exhaustive and holistic approach to quality, and an explicit focus on equity as such is not particularly evident. Indeed, equity-related issues are spread through various assessment criteria, which provide the opportunity for HEIs to refl ect and act on the issue before reporting on them in the form of self-study or post-accreditation quality sustenance reports.


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Second, the QA by the NAAC is a voluntary process. Even though some states have made assessment by the NAAC mandatory, it remains by and large voluntary, with no direct consequences for having no or low accreditation status in India (Patil, 2005).

Third, the NAAC’s quality assurance (QA) framework is not explicit about the enforcement of reservation policies in terms of admission and recruitment. It is believed to be taken care of by means of peer assessment, which can ensure during the process that all reservation policies are being followed. In a recently revised methodology, the NAAC has set up a screening stage called Institutional Eligibility for Quality Assessment in which HEIs are determined to be eligible or not based on certain minimum requirements. For the time being, there is no mention of compliance with reservation policy as a minimum requirement or screening criterion. If it is added, this would represent a very decisive step towards linking equity concerns with quality.

Fourth, there is no link between quality assurance outcomes and funding. The NAAC is one of the very few quality assurance agencies in the world that has adopted a grading pattern. Unfortunately, the grading has not been used to its full extent by most of the funding agencies. Experience of the operations of the NAAC during the last 10 to 15 years indicates that close links between funding, incentives and quality assurance outcomes are vital to achieving the desired results.

This paper concludes by saying that there is a defi nite need for undertaking a longitudinal study that would assess the impact of the NAAC’s QA process implicit in its core values and processes. The NAAC has so far conducted only a preliminary impact study on its contributions to both quality and equity, as reported in this study. Also, a meta-evaluation was done after assessing the fi rst 100 HEIs. After having completed the EQA of 3,000 HEIs, the NAAC needs to undertake an in-depth study to see how this process has infl uenced key issues such as quality and national equity concerns. There is no doubt that the NAAC has yet to fully explore its potential as an instrument of monitoring national concerns for quality as well as equity.


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6. EQUITY AND EXTERNAL QUALITY ASSURANCE: A MARRIAGE OF TWO MINDS?

Michaela Martin

6.1 Introduction

The articles in this study have explored the relationship between equity and external quality assurance in countries as diverse as Australia, Brazil, India and South Africa. Each country has its own history and specifi c context which provides the background to its particular equity problematic. Policy responses to equity concerns vary accordingly. As was expected, the development and coverage of each higher education system also forms a source of diversity which further contributes to variation in many respects. The relationship of equity policies and quality assurance fi nds itself affected by this diversity, as already demonstrated above.

While recognizing this diversity, this explorative study uses a comparative design in order to bring to light elements of convergence in the way that countries reconcile, or even reinforce, the relationship between equity and quality assurance. The comparative design of this study has been chosen with the overall objective to provide insights for policymakers on whether there are opportunities for synergies in the two major policy strands in higher education, that is, equity and quality assurance.

The preceding four papers have been prepared by both researchers on higher education policy and quality assurance practitioners of the studied countries who have an intimate knowledge of the national policy background and quality assurance practices. Authors were invited to assess the interface of equity policy and quality assurance systems within their country framework, discussing the following items:

• the equity problematic in their respective country from a historical and sociological perspective;

• the current policy framework for equity in higher education;• an analysis of how the national quality assurance system refl ects

equity (including main mechanisms for quality assessment, equity


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concerns expressed in the quality model and equity friendly process elements);

• an assessment of the presumed impact that the QA system has had on equity in higher education in terms of institutional policies and practices.

In this concluding chapter, we will thus provide a comparative analysis of the equity problematic in each of the four countries studied and the interface between equity policies and quality assurance. We will look in particular at the relationship of equity policies and the objectives of the EQA systems and to what extent quality models and the QA process are equity sensitive. A preliminary analysis of presumed effect of the EQA system on institutional policies and practices, as apprehended by the authors, will be attempted. Finally, we will draw a series of conclusions for policy-makers in higher education on the relationship of equity policies and quality assurance in higher education and on the appropriate modalities of creating synergies between equity and quality assurance.

6.2 On the infl uence of historical factors on equity

The study of inequities in societies commonly departs from any analysis of the reasons behind social segmentation and relationships of domination of certain groups over others. History frequently provides the background to the understanding of social inequities. In all four countries, historical factors provide a key to understanding the current inequities. Some of these factors are common to all countries, while others are unique.

Colonization as a determining factor for inequities in all four countries

Colonization has been experienced by all four countries as a determining factor for today’s equity problematic. Indeed, all four were colonized at given points in time over the past four centuries. In the case of Australia, Brazil and South Africa, colonization still has a strong bearing on the ethnic composition of the population, where the descendents of former settlers still form a dominant group in society. Slavery, marginalization of indigenous populations, and racial segregation are a corollary.


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Equity and external quality assurance: a marriage of two minds?

Slavery became a particular feature of colonization in the Portuguese colony of Brazil. During much of the colonial period its economy was built by great landowners who relied on native Brazilians as workers and nearly four million slaves who were shipped to Brazil from the African continent. Only in 1888, more than 60 years after independence, did Brazil abolish slavery, but the consequences can still be felt in both the ethnic composition of the country and in terms of its social segmentation.

Marginalization of the indigenous population became a corollary of colonization in Australia. Indeed, before its European discovery by Dutch and later British explorers, the country was inhabited by indigenous populations (aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders). Over the next 150 years, the indigenous Australian population – estimated at 350,000 at the time of European settlement – declined sharply, mainly because of infectious disease combined with forced re-settlement and cultural disintegration.

Colonization by Dutch and British settlers in South Africa culminated in the racial segregation policy of 1961, when South Africa reached full independence and was declared a republic. Under the apartheid regime, which was installed after independence, racial segregation of blacks, coloureds, whites, and Asians became a dominant feature of South African society. Racial segregation was used to separate ethnic groups in all spheres of life, including in higher education. Higher education institutions served different ethnic groups and were administered by separate administrations.

Immigration: a more recent phenomenon in Brazil, Australia, and South Africa

More recent immigration is also affecting the ethnic composition of the population of Brazil, Australia, and South Africa. As a consequence of colonization and immigration, today the populations of Australia, Brazil, and South Africa are ethnically and culturally diverse.

The population of Australia has increased sharply over the years with 5.9 million immigrants, many of Chinese or Vietnamese origin, who immigrated between World War II and 2000. More recent non-English speaking immigrants have posed certain challenges,


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including in the domain of education. Most of the estimated 21.3 million Australians are descendents of colonial-era settlers with close to 90 per cent of the population being of European (mostly British and Irish) origin, while the indigenous population formed only 2.2 per cent of the total population in 2001.

Similarly, during the 19th and 20th centuries, Brazil opened up for the immigration of many European settlers, mainly coming from Italy, Spain, and Germany. In 2007 the Brazilian population was composed of many ethnic groups, with a population of close to 50 per cent declared as white, 42 per cent mulatto, 7 per cent black, and the remaining 1 per cent of Asian or indigenous origin. A considerable degree of race mixing has taken place, so that clear ethnic sub-divisions have become somewhat blurred in today’s Brazilian society.

To a lesser extent, South Africa has been exposed to immigration from European settlers over the past century, many of whom (some have estimated 100,000) have emigrated since majority rule was established in 1994. More recently, immigrants from neighbouring southern African countries such as Zimbabwe have entered South Africa. Again as a consequence of colonization and immigration, South Africa is an ethnically diverse country with blacks making up 79.6 per cent of the population (comprising several major ethnic groups), whites 9.2 per cent, coloureds 8.9 per cent and Asians 2.5 per cent.

Caste as a factor of social segmentation in India

Today Indian society is still strongly shaped by the caste system, with the so-called ‘untouchables’ at the bottom of the social pyramid. This system has a history of over 2,500 years. It is estimated that today untouchables form around 16 per cent of Indian society (Deshpande, 2005). After independence, the Indian Government developed strong affi rmative action policies, its principles anchored in the Indian Constitution, to ensure more social justice and equity for the so-called scheduled castes and tribes. Nevertheless today the former untouchables are not only poorer, they continue to be the target of discrimination and exclusion.

The importance of gender and low socio-economic status

These historical factors can be related to current concerns and issues related to equity but they are certainly not comprehensive.


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Gender, as a multi-dimensional concept, has not been addressed so far, partially because it is diffi cult to address through historical accounts, since it is more linked to predominant beliefs, most related to culture. However, gender equity emerges as a concern in all four countries, and is addressed in all four country articles as an equity concern. But it takes very different shapes and forms depending on the cultural context of each country. While there are certainly major advances in the active participation of women in public life, gender is still a concern to varying degrees in the four countries studied.

These case studies also refer, however indirectly, to socio-economic disadvantage, which commonly stems from the unequal distribution of income, leading to inequity in society. Frequently low socio-economic status is associated with other criteria, such as ethnic minority or tribal status, rural origin, or low caste status. Socio-economic disadvantage, as any other of the above sources of inequity, is often diffi cult to single out, since it occurs at the level of the individual, together with rural origin, tribe, or ethnic minority status.

6.3 On the current equity problematic in higher education

The four country reviews have shown that historical factors such as colonization, immigration, and religious belief have led to social segmentation in each country. Over time, social segmentation has been reinforced by unequal opportunities for participation in education. This has constituted for a long time the basis of social stratifi cation and lack of inter-generational social mobility in the four societies under study.

In order to map inequities in higher education, the authors have provided data on participation and success from their respective higher education systems. The most commonly used indicators are share of enrolment of equity groups in total enrolments and the gross enrolment ratio (GER)37 of social groups. Both indicators contribute to establishing a picture of absolute and relative disadvantage of equity groups.

It is frequently argued that gross enrolment of equity groups provides only a limited measurement of inequities. Measuring retention

37. The gross enrolment ratio in higher education is calculated as all enrolments (independent of students’ age) divided by the population of the relevant age group for higher education, usually 18- to 21-year-olds. An equity-related GER would be the enrolments in higher education of an equity group divided by the population of the relevant age group for higher education of the specifi c equity group.


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and study success (for instance through graduation rates), would provide a fuller picture, since it is related to the measurement of equity of outcomes, and closer to the broader objective of social mobility. Graduation data is available both in Australia and South Africa (only for some sample institutions). Data on learning outcomes in terms of average score in the national examination of graduates is presented for Brazil, and data on academic growth from India (only for one HEI).

From the data presented, it is not possible to establish a full comparative picture of inequities across the four countries, because the data presented follow the particularities of equity measurement of each particular country. Equity groups are defi ned either along ethno-racial lines, socio-economic (poor or not) position, minority status, gender, urban or rural origin, or a combination of these categories. Not surprisingly, while overall equity concerns seem to converge, the emphasis given to certain equity groups varies largely from one context to another.

Ethnicity

In their discussions of the equity problematic in South African higher education, Lange and Singh put major emphasis on race as the overarching issue in post-Apartheid South Africa. They also report, however, improvement in the access and participation of black African students. In 1994, the share of black students in total enrolments was 40 per cent, whereas in 2005, they represented nearly 61 per cent (while nearly 80 per cent of the total population is black). When participation is measured in terms of gross enrolment, Africans had a GER of 9 per cent in 1993, and 12 per cent in 2004, while the overall GER declined from 17 per cent in 1993 to 16 per cent in 2004. The South African case presents data on graduation rates of African students in selected higher education institutions. While overall graduation rates are low in general (only 38 per cent), those of black people are commonly even lower, frequently only half of that of whites, due to interrelated problems of a socio-economic, pedagogical and cultural nature.

Dilvo Ristoff informs us that in Brazilian higher education, ethnicity is also one of the major equity concerns, despite the fact that the Brazilian population today is largely mixed. He cites data from the


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national ENADE examination (the national test for both freshmen and graduates), where whites form 65 per cent of freshmen and 60 per cent of graduates, while they form only 50 per cent of society. Mulattos make up 41 per cent of the population, but only 21 per cent of freshmen and 18.8 per cent of fi nal-year students. The difference between freshmen numbers and fi nal-year students is indicative of a relatively lower internal effi ciency of this group in comparison with others.

Socio-economic background

Socio-economic disadvantage forms another important category for the analysis of inequities in all four papers, with a particular emphasis given to it in Brazil and Australia. In his discussion on Brazil, Ristoff argues that 30 per cent of all students in public HE institutions and only 25.5 per cent of students in private HEIs are considered poor (up to three minimum wages) while the population of poor people is estimated to be over 50 per cent. Data collected from the ENADE examination shows that the number of students coming from public schools38 in Brazil is increasing sharply (25 per cent in 2002 and 59 per cent in 2005). Former students from public secondary schools fi nd themselves concentrated in low prestige study fi elds (around 70 per cent in each of the following areas: accounting, letters, mathematics, pedagogy, and teacher training).

In his discussion about Australia, Antony Stella refers to a recent review conducted by the University of Melbourne (Universities Australia, 2008). This study shows that low SES from rural backgrounds form 10.6 per cent of the population, but they occupy only 5.9 per cent of higher education places. Students with low SES from remote SES form 1.8 per cent of the population but only 0.6 per cent of the student population. The same study states that in this equity group access problems are more apparent than problems of study success.

Gender

Gender emerges typically as an equity concern in countries with relatively low overall GERs in higher education. This is the case of India, where the GER in 2005 was only 11 per cent. Among the four

38. This is a proxy variable for low socio-economic status, since private secondary schooling is the traditional avenue to public higher education in Brazil.


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countries studied, only India demonstrates an overall under-representation of female students. In their discussions, Gupta and Patil state that the participation of women in higher education has increased from 10 per cent in 1950-1951 to 38.9 per cent in 2004-2005. Unexpectedly, gender also forms an equity concern in Australia, where the participation of men has more recently emerged as an issue for equity policies. When women form the majority of enrolments in higher education, gender has emerged as a concern when men are grossly underrepresented in certain study fi elds such as nursing and the humanities.

Caste

With regard to India, Gupta and Patil place major emphasis on the caste issue. While the share of enrolments of scheduled castes and tribes is improving, it does so relatively slowly. The GER of SCs was 6.7 per cent in 2004-2005 and that of STs was 4.9 per cent. When analysed in combination with other elements of disadvantage, such as rural and poor origin, or wage labour origin, their GER is declining rapidly and is frequently close to 0 per cent. The review of India (Chapter 5) provides a rare example of a documentary source that analyses the cumulative effect of disadvantage to the point of demonstrating that a female student from a SC located in a rural environment has almost no chance of getting a higher education.

Indigenous populations

In his review of Australia (Chapter 4), Antony Stella places major attention on aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, since they form the most persistent equity group in Australian higher education, not only in terms of participation, but even more so in terms of retention and completion (only 50 per cent in 2007). They have thus become a particular target for equity policies in Australian higher education, and more recently a particular concern for equity monitoring.

From this comparative analysis, although the four countries share major equity concerns, the equity problematic is not a static problem, but rather a moving target. In Australian higher education, where equity policies have been actively pursued over the past decade, non-English speakers were until recently considered a priority equity group, but their participation levels have improved considerably, while that of


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other equity groups have not. This suggests that access and retention in higher education is not only an economic problem, but also has many social and cultural underpinnings which are more diffi cult to tackle at the national policy level and frequently need supportive action at the level of higher education institutions.

The four papers also clearly demonstrate that certain social groups may be at a severe disadvantage because they cumulate several elements (women of rural origin who are poor) to the point that their likelihood to access higher education becomes nil. The existence of such severe situations of disadvantage may call for targeted policies in favour of severely disadvantaged groups.

6.4 The prevailing policy framework for equity in higher education

Current perceptions of the particular equity problematic of each country naturally form the background for the formulation of equity policies. From the discussions refl ected in all four chapters, it appears that specifi c equity concerns have clearly emerged as a national priority on the higher education policy agenda. When comparing current equity policies, a certain number of policy strands to achieve greater equity are becoming apparent. They are the following:

• system expansion to widen overall access;• equity policy and planning frameworks for their implementation;• monitoring tools (performance indicators, etc.); • affi rmative action;• fi nancial incentives for equity groups in the funding allocation;• student support systems.

These six main lines of action in equity policies are more or less actively pursued by all four countries. In addition to these generic elements of policy development and implementation, each country uses an individual approach and develops implementation strategies in line with its particular administrative context.

Brazil: Planning for overall systems expansion with the monitoring of quality at the centre

Brazil is a country where higher education is traditionally the responsibility of many actors: the federation, the states, municipalities


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and many private entities. More recently, the very existence of the Master Plan for Higher Education 2001 in a country with a high level of decentralization of administrative responsibility for higher education and a high level of privatization, suggests the intention of the Brazilian Federation to assert its responsibility for the overall policy direction and planning of the national higher education system.

The main objective of the Master Plan is to promote the “expansion of the higher education system with quality”. In order to rectify an earlier rapid expansion of the private provision of higher education, which currently stands at 70 per cent of enrolment and is frequently of low quality, the plan has established three priorities: (1) to increase enrolment to 30 per cent for the year 2011, (2) to increase enrolment in public universities to 40 per cent of total enrolment, and (3) to develop a national system of evaluation to monitor the implementation of the plan and assure quality. The 2001 Master Plan emphasizes the strategic role of the public universities, the need for expansion of enrolments backed-up by increased public funding, the defence of free public education, and the promotion of quality.

As part of the reform, the need to monitor the system at the federal level is strongly emphasized. This objective is realized through the creation of a quality assurance system both for HEIs and programmes, and the creation of a large-scale testing device, ENADE, which tests the knowledge and competencies of freshmen and graduating students across all federally controlled public and private higher education institutions.

Ristoff (Chapter 3) mentions the consideration of new forms of access to higher education for black students and students coming from public high schools as an additional priority in the Lula government’s lines of action for higher education. Under the new scholarship programme, PROUNI, some 350,000 students have received access to funding. Another programme, REUNI is targeting 36 federal universities aimed at an enrolment in public federal universities with embedded affi rmative action policies.


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South Africa: Systems transformation based on strong central steering and incentives

Similarly, South Africa needs major restructuring of its highly segmented, fragmented, and very inequitable higher education system. Such restructuring can only take place through strong central steering and planning, and using appropriate incentives and monitoring. The National Commission for Higher Education (NCHE) made recommendations for higher education reform as early as 1995-1996. The Education White Paper 3, issued in 1997, stipulates that increased participation in higher education was essential from both an economic and social perspective. In addition, it singled out equity as one of the guiding principles for the process of transformation of South African higher education.

To implement the vision of the Education White Paper 3, the National Plan for Higher Education was published in 2001. Its three main instruments to implement the vision of a unifi ed and more equitable system of higher education are: strong national planning and steering; a funding policy which provides incentives for non-traditional students; and the creation of a quality assurance system intended to ensure quality standards and extend support to HEIs to reach those standards.

A student support system to make increased access to higher education a more realistic target was created in 1999. However, South Africa could not reach its policy objective of expanding enrolment due to the lack of social demand for higher education.

India: Planning for expansion with a reaffi rmation of affi rmative action

Contrary to Brazil and South Africa, where the emphasis on overall systems planning is relatively recent, India has a strong tradition of overall development planning, which sets targets for higher education. Gupta and Patil point out that, given the still relatively low GER in higher education (11 per cent in 2005), the 11th fi ve-year development plan has established a quantitative target of 15.5 per cent GER to enhance overall access to higher education by 2011-2012. It seems, however, that this target is more set with reference to overall economic


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competitiveness than with reference to widening access for improved equity.

In India, there has been a longstanding concern with equity among underprivileged social groups, such as low castes and certain tribes. In particular, the tradition of so-called reservation policies (the quota system) that precedes independence. In the education system, these policies have been created to provide access to public and private institutions for low caste and underprivileged socio-economic groups. Indeed, it is formalized in the Indian constitution that the state cannot discriminate except if the welfare of children, disabled, women, SC, ST, OBC and minorities is at stake. A main thrust of affi rmative action in India is the reservation policy. As part of reservation, 22.5 per cent of all government jobs and seats in educational institutions are reserved for members of scheduled castes and tribes. This is roughly in line with their representation in society (Deshpande, 2005).

Gupta and Patil underline the fact that reservation policy is still a highly debated issue. Recently legal action has resulted in the imposition of reservation on private higher education institutions as well as public institutions.

In addition to reservation policies, the government provides scholarships and other fi nancial support to students coming from SC, ST, OBC and minorities. The SC and ST tribes commission provides free coaching classes to prepare students for the Common Entrance Examination; special grants are provided to schools that admit students from SC, ST and OBC in large numbers; and places for SC and ST groups are reserved in government posts, including among the academic staff of HEIs (Gupta, 2008b). As in other countries, reservation policies are frequently challenged in India.

The implementation of reservation policies also suffers from weak administrative capacity at the national level to monitor and enforce them (Deshpande, 2005). Gupta (2008b) refers to the current dispute of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) with the Ministry of Human Resource Development to implement a 15 per cent quota for the scheduled castes, 7.5 per cent for the scheduled tribes and 27 per cent for the so-called ‘other backward classes’ (OBC) among academic staff (for lecturers and assistant professors in science and technology, and up


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to the professorial level in management, social sciences and humanities) of IITs. This policy has existed since 1973. There is also a growing concern with the implementation of existing affi rmative action within the higher education sector.

Australia: Successive policy frameworks backed-up by fi nancial incentives and close performance monitoring

In Australia, different policy frameworks have followed each other over the past two decades and were accompanied by several monitoring mechanisms. Over the past two decades they have been targeting the following six equity groups: people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (indigenous) peoples, women in certain subject areas, people of non-English speaking backgrounds, people with disabilities, and people from rural and isolated areas. These groups were fi rst identifi ed in the equity policy framework (DEET, 1990) and became the basis for subsequent policy frameworks.

More recently, the policy document Backing Australia’s future (2002-2003) featured equity as one of the four principles of the reform package. Despite major improvements in the participation of many under-represented groups, the focus on indigenous populations, both aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, has been maintained in the current higher education policy because of overall poor rates of success and retention of these groups within Australian higher education.

In order to monitor and encourage the implementation of national equity policies by universities, the government has requested higher education institutions to develop their own equity plans in line with the national equity policy. A performance monitoring system now requires that institutions submit annual institution assessment frameworks, which request that institutions report on performance in equity in terms of access, participation, retention, and success rate. Visits are also undertaken by the Equity Unit of the Department of Education, Employment and Work Relations.

In addition to performance monitoring, fi nancial incentives are allocated under the Higher Education Equity Support Programme (ESP) and the Higher Education Disability Support Programme (DSP).


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But the government has stipulated that only higher education institutions that ensure equity of access would receive fi nancial support from the government (Higher Education Support Act, 2003). With this in mind, the Department of Education, Sciences and Technology (DEST) provides support to higher education institutions to promote access and participation in higher education of students with disabilities and students from non-English speaking backgrounds or coming from low economic social backgrounds and rural areas.

All four countries have developed strong frameworks for equity policies with some elements of convergence, but also with their own particularities, especially regarding their implementation strategies. To provide a comparative picture on policy strands for equity, Table 6.1 takes stock of the above approaches and implementation mechanisms related to equity. It shows that policy approaches are somewhat diverse but that the existence of a well-established equity policy and plan together with fi nancial student support are strongly present in the four case countries. In countries with a tradition of administrative decentralization, such as Brazil and South Africa, there is also strong emphasis on the use of formal planning documents as a major framework for the implementation of policy. Monitoring tools and fi nancial incentives also seem to be more prominent in countries that have a tradition of administrative decentralization. Both strong planning and monitoring frameworks seem to be in line with the perception that equity policies need strong political will and appropriate frames of reference for the actors in higher education.

Table 6.1 Comparative table of policy instruments related to equity

Systems expansion

Equitypolicyand/orplan

Affi rmative action

in access

Monitoring tools

Financial incentives

for institutions

Student support systems

Australia X X X XBrazil X X X X XIndia X X XSouth Africa* X X X X* An increased participation rate was stipulated as an objective in the National Plan for Higher

Education in South Africa but could not be realized.


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6.5 On the relationship of equity policies and external quality assurance systems

All four countries studied have created their EQA systems very recently since no system was older than 14 years in 2008. Indeed, the Indian National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) represents the oldest EQA system of the four since it was created as early as 1994, while Australia put in place the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) in 2000. SINAES of Brazil was created more recently still – in 2004 – but built on earlier experiences in quality assurance implemented by the National Education Council since 1995. The Higher Education Quality Committee of South Africa (HEQC) was also established only in 2004. In their endeavour to create new quality assurance structures, these four countries follow a global policy agenda whereby the creation of quality assurance mechanisms is currently one of the preferred reforms in higher education.

As outlined in the introduction, quality assurance systems may comprise mechanisms as diverse as assessment/review, quality audit, and accreditation. In addition, each mechanism may refer to whole higher education institutions, individual programmes, or specifi c disciplinary groupings.

Earlier research conducted by the IIEP (Martin et al., 2007; Martin, 2007; Martin and Stella, 2007) on the development of quality assurance systems over time has shown that many countries follow a certain pattern of evolution. Most frequently, a fi rst mechanism initiating the quality assurance system is put in place in order to respond to an immediate need such as quality control for private providers. Over time, EQA systems have become more comprehensive and tend to embrace supplementary mechanisms that respond to additional objectives and pertain to the whole higher education system, such as monitoring the quality of the entire higher education sector or overall quality improvement. As a consequence of diversifying rationales for quality assurance, EQA systems are also becoming more diversifi ed in terms of the mechanisms they use.


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Different mechanisms for EQA, but a convergence towards institutional audit/accreditation

This is also the case of two of the four countries that have been included in this study. South Africa’s HEQC implements three EQA mechanisms in parallel: a quality audit scheme for HEIs, an accreditation mechanism for newly created programmes, and a review scheme for selected national disciplinary areas. The Brazilian SINAES consists of three mechanisms which are institutional evaluation, programme evaluation (although used to inform accreditation and re-accreditation decisions made for institutions and programmes), and the graduate assessment scheme ENADE.

However, both the Australian Universities Quality Agency and the Indian NAAC rely on a single EQA mechanism as the unit of assessment which targets the institution. AUQA implements a compulsory institutional quality audit, while NAAC performs a voluntary institutional accreditation scheme. The mechanisms are similar: they are both based on the ‘fi tness for purpose’ approach, combining self-study with peer review, followed by public reporting. A major difference lies in their outcomes. In the Indian system, an accreditation judgment is made with a grading scale attached, while the outcome of the Australian process is an audit report and other follow-up action.

Table 6.2 demonstrates the divergence of mechanisms underlying national quality assurance systems (quality audit or institutional evaluation/accreditation) with national foci and specifi c attributes. Such a comparison of systems reveals that quality audit, institutional accreditation and institutional evaluation, all rather similar in approach and operations, are implemented in all four countries. Quality audit, institutional accreditation and institutional evaluation are more development- than control-oriented, thus bearing the potential for change at the institutional level. Brazil clearly stands out from the group with the graduate assessment scheme ENADE in addition to the more traditional EQA mechanisms, and thus demonstrates a clear concern with the measurement of learning outcomes in order to be able to monitor quality levels when the higher education system is expanding.


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Table 6.2 Mechanisms for EQA used in the four case countriesEvaluation/

accreditationof institutions

Quality audit

Accreditation/evaluation of programmes

National review

Graduate assessment

Australia XBrazil X X XIndia XSouth Africa X X X

Different objectives of EQA systems, but a more or less explicit reference for national equity policies

Over and above the mechanism used for quality assurance in each country, there are also major differences with regard to the underlying objectives of the national QA systems and the way they relate to broader policy objectives for higher education. Both South Africa and Brazil have created the national EQA system as an integral part of the overall reform of higher education and with direct reference to equity related objectives, whereas in both Australia and India there is a somewhat looser linkage between the national equity policy and the overall rationale behind the creation of the EQA scheme.

South Africa has developed the strongest concern for equity since it links the very “conception of quality to equity and transformation issues” (Lange and Singh, 2008: 11). The Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) was put in place in 2001 to back up a broader societal objective of “transformation” and to contribute to the implementation of the White Paper 3, which establishes equity of access and outcomes as explicit objectives for a restructured South African higher education system. Quality assurance in South Africa was thus conceived as an integral part of higher education reform whose overall aim was to unify the system and make it more equitable in terms of access and outcomes. In particular, EQA was expected to engage all levels of the higher education system, that is, academics, departments and institutions with the desired principles and intended objectives related to equity. In particular, the audit of institutions was seen as a major device to bring to the attention of higher education institutions the main concerns of the NPHE through an “auditing of their institutional systems, policies, procedures strategies and resources for quality management of the core functions of teaching and learning, research


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and community engagement, including the relevant academic support services” (Lange and Singh, 2008: 17).

In South Africa, all mechanisms are applied on a compulsory basis, because all higher education institutions are expected to comply with the same requirements of quality. Quality assurance in South Africa is thus seen as a means to achieve a system of comparable quality across all higher education institutions. A single system of standards was required for the different segments of the higher education system, applied on a compulsory basis, so that the system would serve the aspirations and rights of all students to equitable access and to good quality education, irrespective of which part of the higher education system they were in.

Similarly in Brazil, the recent concern with quality assurance unifi ed under SINAES is directly related to the 2001 Master Plan’s objective to “assure expansion with quality”. The federal level had been given the responsibility for supervising, and thus unifying, higher education under the 1996 Federal Law for Education (LDB), which provided the rationale for a national system of evaluating higher education.

The law establishing SINAES, the national system for higher education evaluation, stipulates that the objectives of SINAES are “the promotion of a deepening of the social commitments and responsibility of the institutions of higher education, through the enhancement of their public mission, the promotion of democratic values, the respect for differences and diversity”. The achievement of expansion with quality thus raises a major challenge where HEIs are perceived to perform a major role in committing themselves to “programmes of social inclusion, affi rmative action, and full access to digital resources [that] are highly valued in the context of SINAES when they exist and are coherent with the institutions’ overall policies”.

SINAES provides information to different government sectors to inform accreditation decisions through the evaluation of institutions and programmes. Accreditation decisions relate to new institutions and programmes and to the accreditation of old ones, as well as to the decisions on “measures to correct existing problems, overcome


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diffi culties or eventually to intervene in an institution or even shut down programmes which are of unacceptable performance”.

ENADE, the student performance evaluation, corresponds to the need to obtain information on equity of outcomes. It is indeed a very innovative mechanism, since it assesses both freshmen and graduating students, and thus provides an approximation of what can be called ‘value added’ in the training pursued in a HEI. Since it relates graduate performance to that of incoming students, it is able to take into account quality differences in the recruitment of students, which are frequently due to socio-economic background. Dilvo Ristoff emphasizes that ENADE can thus be considered a powerful device to break through the reputation hierarchies of well established institutions through an empirical assessment of equity of outcomes.

In both Australia and India, the policy linkage between equity and quality assurance is less obvious. The AUQA, the principal national quality assurance agency of the Australian higher education sector was created with the main objective to promote and report on the quality of the sector.39 AUQA of Australia does not refer explicitly to equity as one of its objectives. AUQA’s mission is to be the “principal national quality assurance agency in higher education with the responsibility of providing public assurance of the quality of Australia’s universities with responsibility for quality audits of higher education institutions and accreditation authorities.”

Similarly, the NAAC was created in 1994 to assess and support the quality of Indian universities across the country with the aim to “enhance quality of higher education to meet global challenges through the XIth Five Year Plan” (Gupta and Patil, 2008: 10). The Indian authors mention that NAAC was not seen primarily as a mechanism for the enhancement of equity, but was created with the idea to provide benchmarks for the assessment of quality in higher education institutions and to create healthy competition in a higher education sector characterized by unequal levels of quality.

In India, the linkage between the quality model developed by NAAC and equity policies is thus somewhat loose. NAAC’s institutional

39. This is stated on the AUQA website: www.auqa.edu.au


http://www.auqa.edu.au

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assessment scheme works within a value framework, which covers issues such as contributing to national development or inculcating a value system among students. However, the value framework as such is not very explicit about its expectations on how HEIs address equity issues in their own policies and processes. Standards and quality criteria used in the quality model are more explicit, as will be discussed below.

The equity concern is operationalized through specifi c standards in the quality model

Most EQA mechanisms work with a system of predefi ned standards and quality criteria, which translate a particular vision of what constitutes quality in higher education. The quality model is commonly the outcome of a negotiation of major stakeholders in higher education, which are the academic community, government and frequently employers. It seems reasonable to expect that the rationale under which an EQA system has been established would also affect the quality model – in other words, the system of standards and quality criteria used by QA agencies for the assessment of quality.

This is certainly the case in South Africa, where HEQC has conceptualized quality under the broader imperative of social transformation. Lange and Singh state in their article that “transformation is a lens with which to assess educational processes” (Lange and Singh, 2008: 14-15). The notion of quality is thus based on a request for both individual and institutional accountability to contribute to the transformation process, but also opportunities for development and capacity development that are needed in a highly inequitable higher education system.

The Brazilian and Indian systems demonstrate explicit equity-related criteria and standards against which institutions are assessed. In these three countries, quality models do indeed provide direct guidance for HEIs on how they should deal with equity issues. Standards refer to the following items:

• an orientation towards community engagement and social inclusion in the missions of HEIs (South Africa, Brazil, India);


195


• the promotion of access for students from equity groups (South Africa, India);

• the promotion of staff recruitment from equity groups (South Africa);

• the development of student retention schemes (Brazil);• the creation of affi rmative action policies (Brazil);• an enquiry whether an institution satisfi es the needs of students

from diverse backgrounds (India);• an enquiry whether an institution uses inclusive practices (India).

The self-study manual of the NAAC (2007) elaborates on the questions that institutions should tackle when assessing whether they cater for diverse needs. They make explicit reference to the remedial measures for students from disadvantaged communities, bridge courses, and so on. The NAAC (2007: 10) defi nes inclusive practices as “new and creative approaches in education involving all stakeholders for adopting inclusive practices to promote social justice”. The self-study manual refers explicitly to community outreach programmes, admission policies, staff recruitment policies, and gender audits that would all contribute to increased diversity on the campus.

Programme accreditation and evaluation is carried out by South Africa and Brazil. Programme accreditation in South Africa is a mechanism which applies to newly created programmes while accreditation in Brazil is conducted on a recurrent basis. Both countries make explicit reference to standards used in programme accreditation which refer explicitly to equity concerns. Such standards address the following items:

• the reduction of regional inequalities and the promotion of social inclusion (Brazil);

• the existence of clear targets for the recruitment, admission and selection of students from equity groups (South Africa, Brazil);

• the appropriateness of teaching and learning as appropriate for the student targets (South Africa);

• the support for staff and students and equity of success in relation to student retention and throughput rates (South Africa);

• the existence of facilities and tools available for the physically handicapped.


196


In the above account of quality criteria and standards relating to equity issues, no mention is made of Australia. This is not because the AUQA is not sensitive to equity, but rather because quality audits performed in Australia do not use a standard-based system for quality assessment, but rely to a larger extent on the judgment made by external reviewers. Antony Stella (Chapter 4) stresses that the AUQA has developed a process for quality audit which contains major elements that are conducive to the implementation of national equity concerns, as will be discussed later.

The quality assurance process can be more or less conducive to equity

In addition to the quality model itself, all authors analyse the question of whether or not the process deployed by EQA mechanisms is sensitive to equity concerns. In all four countries, there is a clear convergence towards the application of the three-stage process of quality assurance. This model consists of: (1) institutional self-study; (2) external review by peers; and (3) a public reporting mechanism for their QA schemes. All authors consider this model to be conducive to both institutional development and external accountability.

The three-stage model starts with an internal assessment (self-study) where equity issues can be placed for institutional positioning and reporting and expressed in a written self-assessment report. External review is reported to create the necessary pressure for accountability arising from external scrutiny. The team of external reviewers can bring issues to the attention of HEIs with a view to validate self-assessment fi ndings, bring new ideas to the fl oor, and share views on implementation issues. In particular, public reporting of assessment outcomes can be expected to serve the agenda of public accountability. The three-stage model has the potential to initiate refl ection on desirable orientations of institutional policy in general, and on equity issues, in particular. However, whether such a refl ection takes place, and then leads to an institutional policy for equity, may also depend on the existence of a strong equity policy framework at the national level, which would act then as a frame of reference.

An additional interesting process element mentioned by the authors from South Africa and Australia, is that audits and evaluation


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are intended to be evidence-led, since they are backed up by institutional profi les based on statistical data on the participation and study success of equity groups in a higher education institution under audit. Such data provide a statistical background that is intended to help external reviewers to identify equity problems from a descriptive statistical perspective with a view to identifying concerns prior to the visit and guiding discussions when auditing a HEI. In Australia, the AUQA, in addition to the self-assessment reports prepared by the HEIs, relies on data produced under the Institutional Assessment Framework, by which HEIs are required to present data in relation to their equity achievements. It delivers statistics to external reviewers on access, participation, retention and graduation. These are regularly collected from HEIs in order to monitor their achievements in the domain of equity.

While there is an obvious similarity in the processes deployed by the different EQA schemes, there are also considerable differences in the latitude enjoyed by external reviewers when making an assessment. In India, an external reviewer is guided by a questionnaire that contains the standards to be assessed with benchmarks and credits to be allocated. All obtained credits are summed up and determine the overall grade granted to a higher education institution. Similarly, in Brazil programme evaluation is based on an instrument which contains a criteria scale ranging from one to fi ve (ranging from totally satisfactory to totally unsatisfactory), with Grade 3 representing a minimum acceptable level.

External reviewers in both South Africa and Australia work with less guidance. With a view to control variability in the assessment process, external reviewers in both countries undergo prior training before joining a team of external reviewers. Lange and Singh report that part of the training is focussed on the conceptual link between equity and quality and its practical implications with regard to the core functions of higher education, teaching, research and service to the community. As such, external reviewers are trained to investigate equity policies and strategies when visiting a HEI.

Table 6.3 presents a comparative view of the existence of specifi c process elements for EQA which have been described by authors as equity friendly. It shows that all four countries use the three-stage model


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of EQA, and all provide training to external reviewers prior to assessment visits. Such training also has the potential to strengthen the sensitivity of external reviewers to equity issues. Two agencies provide reviewers with statistical portfolios on the participation and success of equity groups to facilitate the visit, and the two others use benchmark statements to provide a statistical background to reviewers. There seem to be two different underlying conceptions with regard to the judgments that will be formed by reviewers. Either they are guided by benchmark standards, and their role is mainly to check on the relationship between standards and ground realities, or they are guided by training and available data, and their role is thus more to gain an understanding of the local institutional environment, the mission (including whether it is appropriate) and its implementation.

Table 6.3 Existence of process elements supportive of equityThree-stage

processStatistical support

providedBenchmark statements

Training for external reviewers

Australia X X XBrazil X X XIndia X X XSouth Africa X X X

Follow-up and reporting

In terms of follow-up measures, or in other words consequences that will be drawn from the results of the QA process, countries again vary widely. Consequences are important, and they can infl uence the seriousness with which HEIs become involved in the QA process. They also represent a dilemma. If the stakes are too high for HEIs, they will often not get involved in serious self-assessment, but can be expected to become strategic in their approach.

In South Africa, while both quality audit and programme accreditation are compulsory, quality audit has no direct fi nancial consequences for institutions. Only programme accreditation may really have the direct consequence of programme closure, but more likely due to inadequate quality standards. Singh and Lange mention that “minimum standards focused on equity issues do not tip the balance in relation to whether a programme gets accredited or loses its accreditation status. The fi nal judgment is predominantly determined on the basis of teaching and learning considerations.”


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In terms of follow-up, Australia, South Africa and India report that institutions are required to prepare improvement plans to be submitted to the quality assurance structure. In Australia, institutions are expected to act on recommendations made in AUQA audit reports 18 months after the audit has taken place. Audited higher education institutions compulsorily have to prepare a progress report. They have to demonstrate how they have acted upon recommendations made in the assessment report, including on equity issues. As a consequence, they are constrained to take recommendations seriously and to act upon them in one way or another, or otherwise have good reasons not to act upon such recommendations.

As another follow-up measure, EQA systems differ with regard to the types of support that they provide to higher education for their institutional development. When the objective of quality assurance is both accountability and institutional development, then it is also necessary to link quality assurance to opportunities for capacity building. With this in mind, the South African HEQC has created a department for capacity building whose objectives it is to respond to the problem of uneven fi nancial and human capacity of institutions with different histories. Therefore HEQC embarked on a comprehensive capacity development programme to “ensure that all higher education institutions would be able to respond to the common quality requirements”, which is itself a mechanism to achieve greater equity in the system, both for institutions, their respective staff and students.

Another follow-up mechanism is the creation of a so-called good practice database, whose main objective it is to spread good practices that were identifi ed during an audit to other institutions. Antony Stella reports that AUQA has created a good practice database as an instrument to make desirable institutional practices available to all Australian universities. Such a database thus offers the potential to spread good practices, including in the equity domain, throughout the higher education system.

Table 6.4 demonstrates that all four systems use public reporting of QA outcomes and thus emphasize the accountability objective of the EQA system. Accreditation decisions are taken by two agencies (the NAAC of India for institutions and the HEQC of South Africa for


200


programmes). In Brazil, evaluation provides the basis on which public authorities can make accreditation decisions. Both the Australian AUQA and the South African HEQC put major emphasis on the implementation of EQA outcomes and improvement action, and they request audited HEIs to prepare reports on how they have acted upon recommendations made during the audit. This is of course a major tool to make sure that HEI take recommendations seriously and act upon them. And fi nally, Australia and India are using information collected during site visits to inform on good practices or the present state of affairs in higher education institutions regarding a policy question. The report on indigenous issues in Australian higher education represents such an effort to exploit information collected during a series or audits for policy monitoring. Exploiting audit reports to identify such good practices and make them available to the higher education community is a very interesting device for spreading innovation throughout the system.

Table 6.4 Follow-up measures to EQA mechanismsPublic

reporting on assessment

outcomes

Linkage to accreditation

decisions

Opportunities for capacity

building

Institutional follow-up

report

Good practice

database or publication

Australia X X X XBrazil X XIndia X X (X)*

South Africa X (X)** X X* The case study mentions a publication of best practices in the area of community engagement.** Only for programme accreditation.

6.6 On the effect of equity sensitive EQA on institutional policies and practices

In addition to the question of whether QA systems are equity sensitive, a second question explored under the present research refers to the effects of an equity sensitive EQA system on institutional policies and practices. This question is very important because in higher education, more than at any other level of education, the implementation of national education policies depends widely on the willingness and capacity of higher education institutions to translate national goals into institutional objectives and practices (Lane, 1983; Cerych and Sabatier, 1986; Gornitzka et al., 2005).


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Institutional equity policies

All four quality assurance schemes studied here have put in place quality audit schemes (some in addition to other mechanisms), which equally all adopt the fi tness for purpose approach. As a consequence, they depart from the institutional mission statement and assess not only whether the institution has been able to implement its mission, but also whether the mission itself is appropriate.

Singh and Lange state somewhat cautiously that in South Africa “institutional audits have had considerable impact fi rst on institutional thinking and discussion on the relationship between equity and quality and then on how this relationship is best expressed in teaching and learning, research and community engagement within particular institutional contexts and specifi c institutional missions”.

The simultaneous existence of a strong policy framework for equity at the national level and a scheme for institutional audit/assessment thus sets the thematic framework for external scrutiny and accountability. Stella states that national policy statements create external reference points which are used by the AUQA to guide discussions during audits. Clearly, quality audits constitute an effective means to follow-up in a more qualitative manner than performance monitoring the development of equity policies at the institutional level. They also allow for a contextual assessment of institutional equity policies since audit takes into account the particularities of the local environment and conditions of a HEI. Both Antony Stella and Gupta and Patil report that Australian and Indian universities clearly refer in their mission statements to “the promotion of access”, “commitment to equity and equal opportunity”. There is then solid evidence that HEIs in these two countries directly relate to national policies in their mission statements.

Institutional monitoring of equity policies

The audit approach requests HEIs to prepare a self-assessment on how effectively the mission and institutional objectives have been implemented. This requires that HEIs put in place an institutional system for monitoring the implementation of institutional policy so that they, in turn, are able to report to national authorities and to the QA


202


agency when being audited. In the case studies no detailed evidence is presented on self-assessment processes and how they are supported by institutional monitoring systems. The authors, however, imply that self-assessment is an important element to review institutional policies and their implementation. With regard to impact in South Africa, Singh and Lange report that “audits have increased institutional awareness of the many aspects of the student experience and how these relate to institutional cultures, perceptions of race, class, etc and their possible constraining effects on student learning”.

Action taken upon recommendations made by the EQA agency

In South Africa and Australia, the EQA process includes follow-up action. This device obliges HEIs to act on the recommendations made in the audit reports and/or to report on action taken. Singh and Lange state that “improvement plans indicate that audits are having an impact on the development and enhancement of initiatives focussed on staff and student equity profi les. Antony Stella mentions in particular that an analysis of the progress reports submitted in 2006 by the AUQA indicates that every HEI reported on average 50 actions taken upon recommendations in the audit reports. Despite the fact that there is no detailed information on how many of these follow-up activities relate to equity concerns, it appears however quite clearly that the explicit request for follow-up action on recommendations expressed in audit reports constitutes an important mechanism to ensure that audit recommendations enter into management decisions and follow-up actions.

Access and study success of students

This provides clear evidence that quality assurance offers an occasion for scrutiny of the particular situation and achievements of a HEI in relation to national equity objectives. Gupta and Patil (Chapter 5) present an analysis of equity concerns and action conducted as refl ected in fi ve re-accreditation reports. On the basis of these reports, they are able to draw a number of conclusions on the prevailing situation of certain equity aspects in this small sample of Indian universities. They conclude that despite the existence of longstanding reservation policies for disadvantaged groups at the national level, the evidence on how these policies are refl ected at the institutional level is somewhat sketchy.


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Only two of the fi ve universities that have undergone re-assessment by NAAC can report specifi c action in providing special access to equity groups. Both mention the implementation of institutional reservation schemes and the building of a student hostel for disadvantaged students.

However, the specifi c survey conducted by the NAAC for this study brings to light the shortcomings of institutions when assessing whether they are in line with national equity targets. With regard to access and support for disabled students, data presented by the universities that have undergone assessment by the NAAC show that the average participation rate of disabled students is in the order of 1 per cent, despite a 3 per cent target set at the national level. This is in itself an indication that EQA systems have the potential to generate a wealth of information on many policy aims. However, this wealth is frequently underexplored by the EQA agencies themselves, in particular if there are no specifi c requests made by public authorities for such further analysis. These indications seem to corroborate Deshpande’s (2005) conclusion that equity frameworks are well in place in India, but that the monitoring of and support to implementation are currently weak.

Dilvo Ristoff (Chapter 3) presents data produced by ENADE, which show that students supported by the national student scholarship scheme for poor and needy students PROUNI, received statistically signifi cantly higher scores in both the general part of the examination as well as in its professional component than the average of the general student population. While these results do not claim any cause-effect relationship with quality assurance in Brazil, they do however refute the frequently prevailing belief that quantitative expansion will lead to diminished average learning outcomes, since underprivileged students will bring down the mean. The very existence of ENADE and its ability to generate this information acts as a very strong instrument to contradict what Ristoff demystifi es as conservative arguments against expansion policies, showing that there can be expansion together with quality.


204


Action taken on staff recruitment policies

In the area of recruitment of faculty from disadvantaged sections, Gupta and Patil indicate that all the universities analysed claim that they have policies in place for such recruitment, but statistics show that institutions are well below national reservation targets. Only one of the fi ve universities can demonstrate evidence of real commitment through the creation of a cell to co-ordinate such policies at the institutional level. In their case study, Gupta and Patil refer to the fact that national authorities in India (the Ministry of Human Resource Development) are now becoming more concerned with national institutions, in particular the Indian institutes of technology, to implement the national targets of reservation.

6.7 Conclusion

Equity and quality assurance – is it a marriage of two minds? This is the question asked at the beginning of this chapter. It is formulated this way with the underlying assumption that equity and quality are usually separate policy strands on higher education agendas that use different spheres for implementation. Whether they are ready for a marriage implies that, at the minimum, they are willing and able to extend mutual support. This is clearly the case of equity policies and quality assurance in the four countries studied here. But this mutual support is only available under certain given framework conditions. This section will summarize the main fi ndings of this exploratory research and point out these conditions.

This study on the relationship of equity and quality assurance was intended to focus on two questions to address a third overarching concern. The intermediate issues are (1) the scope of equity concerns in quality models and assessment processes and (2) the effects of equity sensitive quality assurance systems on equity policies and practices at the institutional level. These two intermediary questions inform the more general question, whether and under what conditions EQA schemes may contribute to the monitoring and implementation of national equity policies.


205


Scope for equity concerns in quality models and the assessment process

The fi rst area of analysis focuses on the scope for equity and social relevance in quality models and quality assessment procedures developed by EQA systems. The above discussions demonstrate that all four quality assurance systems (standards and criteria or processes) include specifi c equity concerns and relate more or less explicitly to national equity policies. Quality assurance agencies address equity issues either in a direct fashion through the defi nition of standards and criteria, or otherwise implicitly when institutional missions and their implementation are under scrutiny.

The importance given to equity issues varies from one country context to the other. Equity takes an extremely prominent position in South Africa where the EQA scheme was set up under the transformation imperative and where the QA system was explicitly conceived as a means to achieving a unifi ed and more equitable higher education system. Equity issues are also very prominent in the Brazilian SINAES, which has been set up with the idea of widening access while ensuring a quality higher education provision for all. Under such explicit imperatives, the assessment of institutions and programmes to ensure equitable standards and real evidence of academic growth become themselves mechanisms for ensuring certain standards across the system.

Effects on institutional policies and practices

The authors of the four chapters are able to provide clear information on the effect of EQA schemes on institutional policies and practices related to equity. In those countries where there are strong equity policy frameworks, institutions tend to refer more frequently to equity objectives in their mission statements and institutional policies. Even under the fi tness for purpose approach used in those countries where institutional autonomy has a long standing tradition, the purpose of a HEI will be assessed by external reviewers against national policy objectives to which publicly funded institutions have to contribute. As a consequence, HEIs tend to be pro-active and include national policy issues in their mission statements.


206


Some indication of institutional practices to achieve greater equity has also been reported from an assessment of audit reports made by QA agencies. Audit schemes will typically assess whether institutional missions have been implemented in line with the mission statement and self-monitored by the HEI. Accreditation schemes naturally depart from the standards and quality criteria set in the quality model of the agency, which are then used by external reviewers as a reference for quality assessment. In both cases, equity policies provide one frame of reference for institutional assessment.

EQA system as a tool for the implementation and monitoring of equity policies

The above research confi rms that EQA systems have the potential to be used as monitoring mechanism for the implementation of equity concerns in countries which have strong policy frameworks in place. The country papers refer to the fact that institutional audit reports clearly indicate that HEIs explicitly refer to national equity concerns in their mission statement. It is also interesting to note that an analysis of institutional audit reports could bring to light the lack of implementation of national equity objectives by HEIs. EQA thus clearly has the potential to monitor policy implementation, provided that QA agencies exploit audit reports with this objective in mind.

It must be emphasized that EQA systems are not primarily geared towards monitoring the implementation of national equity policies. Their main objective is to ensure certain standards across provision of higher education or to facilitate institutional development in general. They can thus be seen and used as a complementary tool for monitoring, in addition to others such as performance indicators and supervision schemes, which are explicitly set up by government as instruments for accountability.

EQA mechanisms have certain advantages over more quantitative monitoring instruments. First, the four case studies show that they comprise self-assessment and peer review. As a consequence, they are geared to serve developmental purposes and have led to institutional change. Second, quality audit as practiced in Australia and South Africa particularly departs from the particular context of a HEI. It allows for


207


the assessment of an institutional reality in the light of local circumstances and an institutional environment. Thirdly, all four EQA schemes require public reporting on assessment outcomes which explicitly serve as an element of public reporting. The four articles show that the analysed EQA process is thus more complete than other performance monitoring, since it involves different levels of actors in a complementary process.

With a view to making synergies between equity and EQA policies possible (or to create an appropriate environment for the diffi cult couple) certain conditions emerge as from an analysis of the four countries to establish a mutually supportive relationship between equity and quality assurance.

Establishing a strong framework for national equity policy as a reference for institutions

All EQA systems use institutional quality audit or evaluation as a preferred mechanism. The above research demonstrates that a clear policy or planning framework, possibly operationalized with quantitative targets, could serve as a necessary reference to inform assessments held in quality audits or evaluation schemes that are based on the fi tness for purpose approach.

Interestingly, Australia, Brazil, and South Africa, three countries with longstanding traditions of decentralization, have all opted for an approach based on central steering with set targets, planning, monitoring, and targeted incentive funding. As a consequence, strong external reference points exist against which institutional missions can be assessed.

Linking the objectives of the EQA system with national (equity) policies

When looking at the four country cases, it is clear that the importance of equity issues in EQA schemes varies from country to country. Such a relationship seems to be naturally very strong when EQA has been conceived explicitly as a means of implementing a national policy framework for increased equity, such as in South Africa. Then equity transcends the whole EQA system, both in terms of the quality model and the process elements. It establishes a strong coherence


208


between the quality model, the assessment process and follow-up activities.

Developing clear references to equity in the quality model of EQA mechanisms

But even if the system is not primarily geared to equity, strong national equity policies can be refl ected in the EQA system, and may become visible in the quality model which includes standards concerned with equity. Such clear references may be accompanied by benchmark statements (Brazil) or quantitative benchmarks and associated grades (India). If they exist, they provide strong guidance for the external reviewers and are thus a useful tool for making certain expectations explicit to the HEIs. When there is no quality model based on standards and quality criteria, as is the case for AUQA and HEQC, agencies may offer intensive training sessions for reviewers with the intention of providing guidance for the discussion of equity concerns with institutional actors.

Giving preference to compulsory EQA schemes which cover the whole higher education sector

With the exception of India, all other three EQA schemes are compulsory. When EQA schemes are voluntary and thus cover only part of the higher education sector, they are of course less amenable to monitoring EQA policies, although Gupta and Patil indicate that even voluntary EQA schemes collect much information that can be useful to obtain feedback on institutional policies and practices, even if only from a sample of HEIs.

Stipulating follow-up requirements to institutions and ensuring follow-up

All four countries’ EQA schemes include mechanisms for assessing follow-up of recommendations by HEIs. Some agencies explicitly assess how many recommendations are acted upon in order to monitor their own impact on the higher education sector. Without any doubt such follow-up practices contribute to the overall effectiveness of the EQA system and make it an effective mechanism to implement desired change in the higher education sector.


209


Offering opportunities for capacity development to higher education institutions

When a higher education sector is marked by major inequities, it is important that all higher education institutions of a given category be assessed against the same system of standards. Certain HEIs may need special support to enable them to adhere to the specifi cations and requirements expressed under the quality model. EQA agencies may thus not be able to restrict themselves to quality assessment, but may also need to foresee follow-up activities with the higher education sector for capacity development.

Making good institutional practices available for the higher education sector

Finally, it appears promising that EQA agencies identify good practices and make them available in an organized and accessible manner to other HEIs as a resource through an on-line database. The identifi cation of such good practices requires a specifi c exploitation of assessment reports, or the particular attention of agency staff that accompanies assessment, to identify good practices. Not all EQA agencies engage in such analyses, probably because of a shortage of human resources. This leaves a valuable resource for the monitoring of higher education unused for the benefi t and development of the higher education sector.

From the above discussions it is clear that equity and quality are by no means antagonistic policy objectives in the four countries studied. While it is certainly true that they form particular policy strands with associated more detailed objectives and implementation tools, the four country papers have shown that there is considerable potential that they can come together to form a more coherent partnership and mutually reinforce each other.

The four countries studied show that the diffi cult couple is ready for marriage in their particular contexts. The above analyses point to some of the conditions required. These conditions are intended to provide insights for policymakers on how to create synergies between both policy strands for a long and happy life of equity and quality in their respective countries.


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(Accessed on 10 February 2009)

AUQA audit manuals, can be downloaded from: www.auqa.edu.au/qualityaudit/auditmanuals/ (Accessed on 10 February 2009)

AUQA audit reports can be downloaded from: www.auqa.edu.au/qualityaudit/universities/ (Accessed on 10 February 2009)

AUQA, Performance Portfolio of AUQA prepared for its 2006 external review, can be downloaded from:

www.auqa.edu.au/aboutauqa/externalreview/performance_portfolio.pdf

(Accessed on 10 February 2009)

DEEWR: www.deewr.gov.au (Accessed on 10 February 2009). Good Practice Database of AUQA, can be downloaded from: www.auqa.edu.au/gp/about/index.php (Accessed on 10 February 2009).

http://naacindia.org (Accessed 10 February 2009).

http://naacindia.org/publications.asp (Accessed 10 February 2009).

www.icrier.org (Accessed 10 February 2009).

www.backingaustraliasfuture.gov.au/policy.htm (Accessed on 27 November 2007).

www.dest.gov.au (Accessed on 10 February 2009)


http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/higher_education/publications_

http://www.auqa.edu.au/qualityaudit/auditmanuals

http://www.auqa.edu.au/qualityaudit/universities

http://www.auqa.edu.au/aboutauqa/externalreview/performance_

http://www.deewr.gov.au

http://www.auqa.edu.au/gp/about/index.php

http://naacindia.org


http://www.icrier.org

http://www.backingaustraliasfuture.gov.au/policy.htm

http://www.dest.gov.au

IIEP publications and documents

More than 1,200 titles on all aspects of educational planning have been published by the International Institute for Educational Planning. A comprehensive catalogue is available in the following subject categories:

Educational planning and global issuesGeneral studies – global/developmental issues

Administration and management of educationDecentralization – participation – distance education – school mapping – teachers

Economics of educationCosts and fi nancing – employment – international cooperation

Quality of educationEvaluation – innovation – supervision

Different levels of formal educationPrimary to higher education

Alternative strategies for educationLifelong education – non-formal education – disadvantaged groups – gender education

Copies of the Catalogue may be obtained on request from:IIEP, Publications and Communications Unit

[email protected] of new publications and abstracts

may be consulted online: www.iiep.unesco.org


mailto:[email protected]


The International Institute for Educational Planning

The International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) is an international centre for advanced training and research in the fi eld of educational planning. It was established by UNESCO in 1963 and is fi nanced by UNESCO and by voluntary contributions from Member States. In recent years the following Member States have provided voluntary contributions to the Institute: Australia, Denmark, India, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The Institute’s aim is to contribute to the development of education throughout the world, by expanding both knowledge and the supply of competent professionals in the fi eld of educational planning. In this endeavour the Institute cooperates with training and research organizations in Member States. The IIEP Governing Board, which approves the Institute’s programme and budget, consists of a maximum of eight elected members and four members designated by the United Nations Organization and certain of its specialized agencies and institutes.

Chairperson: Raymond E. Wanner (USA)

Senior Adviser on UNESCO issues, United Nations Foundation, Washington DC, USA.

Designated Members: Christine Evans-Klock

Director, ILO Skills and Employability Department, Geneva, Switzerland. Carlos Lopes

Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director, United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), United Nations, New York, USA.

Jamil SalmiEducation Sector Manager, the World Bank Institute, Washington, DC, USA.

Diéry Seck Director, African Institute for Economic Development and Planning, Dakar, Senegal.

Elected Members:Aziza Bennani (Morocco)

Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Morocco to UNESCO. Nina Yefi movna Borevskaya (Russia)

Chief Researcher and Project Head, Institute of Far Eastern Studies, Moscow.Birger Fredriksen (Norway)

Consultant on Education Development for the World Bank.Ricardo Henriques (Brazil)

Special Adviser of the President, National Economic and Social Development Bank. Takyiwaa Manuh (Ghana)

Director, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana.Jean-Jacques Paul (France)

Professor of Economics of Education, Department of Economics and Business Administration, University of Bourgogne, Dijon.

Xinsheng Zhang (China) Vice-Minister of Education, China.

Inquiries about the Institute should be addressed to:The Offi ce of the Director, International Institute for Educational Planning,

7-9 rue Eugène Delacroix, 75116 Paris, France


Policy-makers in higher education need to formulate coherent and effective overall policies for higher education. They are thus looking for opportunities to create synergies and a stronger consistency in their policy-making. Equity and quality are two long-standing but separate strands

in higher education policy agendas in terms of policy targets and implementation mechanisms. Equity is the older, yet persistent policy issue. Quality has recently moved up on policy agendas and finds itself materialized through the creation of numerous quality assurance schemes worldwide.This publication explores whether there is scope for equity and quality to come together on higher education policy agendas and under what conditions they can do so. Authors from countries as diverse as Australia, Brazil, India, and South Africa discuss the relationships between equity policies and the quality assurance systems. Their analysis focuses on: (1) the equity problematic in their respective countries from a historical and sociological perspective; (2) the current policy framework for equity in higher education; (3) how the national quality assurance systems reflect equity (including main mechanisms for quality assessment, equity concerns expressed in the quality model and equity friendly process elements); and (4) the presumed impact that the quality assurance system has had on equity in higher education in terms of institutional policies and practices.

The editor


ISBN: 92-803-1347-5




Eq

uity an

d q

uality assu

rance

Ed

ited b

y Mich

aela Martin


New trends in higher education

Equity and quality assurance - UNESDOC Databaseunesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001871/187184e.pdf ·...

Documents

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