Discursive constructions of quality assurance: the case of the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education

Abstract

Quality assurance is on the contemporary agenda in higher education and has been prioritised across the globe. It has been conspicuous through the emergence of numerous quality assurance bodies, and in Zimbabwe, where this study takes place, the government has constituted the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education. This study aims to identify the discourses drawn on by academics and those working within Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education to construct the roles and processes of external quality assurance practices in universities in Zimbabwe. The study was grounded on the premise that external quality assurance processes in higher education can vary according to their contextual environment. Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis as a method driven theory not only provided a methodology, a way of collecting and analysing my data, but it was also a substantive theory, which provided a particular way of understanding the world through discourse. Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis is grounded in a Critical Realist view of the social world that enabled generalisations about the effect discourse was having on the phenomenon of interest: quality assurance in higher education. One-to-one and group interviews were used to yield exploratory, descriptive and explanatory data. To corroborate and augment data from interviews, key documents related to quality assurance in universities in Zimbabwe and obtained from the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education were analysed. There were a number of profound discourses that emerged in the research study. There was a discourse of 'control' in which Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education put in place compliance mechanisms, setting minimum requirements for universities to offer 'credible' higher education. There was a discourse of 'power struggle' in which universities endeavoured to maintain their institutional autonomy in response to what was perceived as Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education's requirement of compliance. In the context of higher education in Zimbabwe, an important implication of the study was evident in the discourse of 'gold standard' of quality assurance which assumed that quality entails a generic best practice but which fails to take context into account. While a generic 'global' notion of best practice in quality assurance was dominant in the discourses of quality identified in this study, there were other discourses that focused on what quality might look like within the resource constraints of the context. The study highlighted the importance of collegiality between quality assurance organisations and universities to realise success of quality assurance intentions.