University quality assurance body rendered toothless by Minister
16 April 2015
I will write to the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, to request that he not render the Council for Higher Education (CHE) toothless by narrowing their oversight function over South African Universities.
In a presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training yesterday it was revealed that the CHE, the main body set up after 1994 to hold the tertiary education system to rigorous standards, is no longer empowered to hold Universities to account for their overall performance.
The CHE and its sub-unit, the Higher Education Quality Council, were originally set up to conduct rigorous reviews of teaching, learning, research and community-engagement aspects of each University, using international and local experts.
Universities were then required to self-report on a wide range of topics. These reports would then be evaluated, made public and the Universities were then required to prepare extensive improvement plans covering areas of weakness.