THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHING PRACTICES ON QUALITY ASSURANCE MECHANISMS IN SELECTED UNIVERSITIES IN UGANDA

David Baiko Ajuaba, Proscovia Namubiru Ssentamu, Marc Cutright

Abstract


The effort to enhance formal quality assurance mechanisms in the Ugandan universities started with the creation of the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) in 2003. Teaching practices are critical in the maintenance of quality assurance mechanisms in university education. The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of teaching practices on quality assurance mechanisms in selected universities in Uganda. The specific areas of interest were content delivered, methods of delivery and the adequacy of infrastructure for quality teaching. The study is based on systems theory where the inputs in a university to improve quality assurance mechanisms are the faculty and infrastructure used to implement the curricula in order to produce graduates. The study is based on the pragmatic paradigm with a cross-sectional survey design. A disproportionate stratified random sampling technique was employed to sample 300 faculty and students who expressed their opinions on questionnaires. With convenience sampling 47 students participated in focus group discussions and 20 managers were purposefully sampled for individual interviews. Frequencies, percentages and chi-square were used to analyze the quantitative data and corroborated with qualitative data. The findings revealed a positive contribution of teaching practices to quality assurance mechanisms. The study concluded that there is a moderate influence of teaching practices on quality assurance mechanisms. Therefore, the study recommends that the universities should adopt modern practices of teaching that involve the use of ICT accompanied with training and adequate provision of infrastructure.

 

Article visualizations:

Hit counter


Keywords


teaching practices, quality assurance mechanisms, selected universities, Uganda

Full Text:

PDF

References


Achanga, P. C. (2013). The National Quality Assurance Framework. A Paper Presented at Uganda Martyrs University (UMU). National Council for Higher Education. Unpublished.

Atweibembire, J. and Malunda, P. N. (2019). Staff Development and Quality Education in Uganda: Analysis of Quality Teaching and Research in Private Chartered Universities. The Ugandan Journal of Management and Public Policy, vol. 15, pp 104-117

Bhniyan, B. A., Ahmmed, K. and Molla, K. (2009). A Theoretical Framework for Quality Assurance in Higher Education of Bangladesh. Journal of Business, Society and Science, Leading University, vol.1, no. 1, pp.27-51.

Bunoti, S. (2012). The Quality of Higher Education in Developing Countries needs Professional Support. Available online at http://www.inteonfhighered.org

Chalmers, D. (2008). Indicators of university teaching and learning quality. The Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in higher education.

Coetzee, M. (2002). Getting and keeping your Accreditation. The quality assurance and assessment guide for education, training and development providers. Van Schaik Uitgewers.

Fry, H., Ketteridge, S. and Marshall, S. (2009). A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing Academic Practice (3rd Ed.). Routledge

Harvey, L. and Askling, B. (2003). Quality in higher education, in Begg, R. (Ed).The dialogue between higher education research and practice. Dordrecht Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Harvey, L. and Green, D. (1993). Defining Quality Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 18 (1) 9-34, London.

Henard, F. and Roseveare, D. (2012). Fostering quality teaching in higher education: Policies and practices. An institutional management of higher education (IMHE) guide for higher institutions, OECD.

Kadhila, N. (2012). Quality Assurance Mechanisms in Higher Education Institutions in Namibia. A Dissertation Submitted to the School of Higher Education Studies, Faculty of Education for the award of PhD in Higher Education Studies. University of the Free State Bloemfontein.

Kansay, M. N (2012). Quality and Quality Assurance in Ethiopean Higher Education: Critical Issues and Practical Implications, CHEPS/UT, AE Enschede, the Netherlands.

Kavulya, J. M. (2004). University libraries in Kenya: A study of their practices and performance. PhD Thesis. Humboldt University, Berlin.

Kruijer, H. (2010). Learning how to teach: The upgrading of unqualified primary teachers in Sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons from Tanzania, Malawi and Nigeria. Education International, Belgium.

Kuria, M., Hansert, C. and Nkunya, M. H. H. (2012). Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), Regional Cooperation for Quality Assurance. The IUCEA/ DAAD East African Quality Assurance Initiative.

Kwesiga, P. (2013). Leaders and University change: Managing universities in diversity. International Research and Exchanges Board University Administration Support Program.

Madu, C. N. and Kuei, C. (1993). “Dimension of Quality Teaching in Higher Institutions”. Total Quality Management, vol 4 No3.

Mamdani, M. (2007). Scholars in the marketplace: The dilemmas of neo-liberal reforms at Makerere University, 1989-2005. Dakar: CODESTRIA GS search.

Materu, P. (2007). Higher Education Quality Assurance in Sub-Saharan Africa, Status, Challenges, Opportunities and Promising, Practices. Washington DC: World Bank.

Matovu, S (2017). The State of Internal Quality Assurance Systems in Ugandan Universities: Issues, Opportunities and Challenges. European Journal of Education Studies. Vol 3. Issue 8. www.oapub.org/edudoi:10.5281/zerodo.848197.

McAlphine, M. (2002). Principles of Assessment, Glasgow: University of Glasgow. Robert Clark Center for Technological Education.

McDowell, L., Wakelin, D., Montgomery, C. and King, S. (2010). Does assessment for learning make a difference? The development of a questionnaire to explore the student response. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. Pp1-18.

Nabaho, L., Oonyu, J. and Aguti, J. N (2017). Good teaching: Aligning student and administrator perceptions and expectations. Higher Learning Research Communications, 7 (1). http://dx.doi.org/10.18870/hlrc.v7il.321.

NCHE, (2008). Quality Assurance Framework for Universities and the Licensing Process for Higher Education Institutions. NCHE Kampala

NCHE, (2014). Quality assurance framework for universities and the accreditation process for higher education institutions. NCHE Kampala.

Nyangau, J. Z. (2014). Higher education as an instrument of economic growth in Kenya, FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education; 1 (1), 7-25. http://preserve./ehigh.edu/fire/voll/issl/3.

OECD (2014). Learning our lessons: Review of quality teaching in higher education. http://www.oecd.org/edu/imhe/qualityteaching.

Pew, S. (2007). Andragogy and pedagogy as foundation theory for student motivation in higher education student motivation.

Prosser, D. D. (2013). Quality teaching. In D. J. Salter (Ed) Cases of quality teaching practices in higher education. pp 26-28, P.A: IGI Global.

Richards, J. C (2001). Curriculum Development in Language Teaching NY:CUP

Rust, C. (2002). The impact of assessment on learning: How can the research literature practically help to inform the development of departmental assessment strategies and learner-centered assessment practices? Active Learning in Higher Education, 3, 145-158.

Shabani, J., Okebukola. P., and Oyewole, O. (2014). Quality assurance in Africa: Towards a continental higher education and research space. International Journal of African Higher Education, 1 (1), pp 139-171. https://doi.org/10.6017/ijahe.v1:1.5646. GS Search.

Tibarimbasa, A. K. M. (2010). Factors Affecting the Management of Private Universities in Uganda. PhD Thesis. Makerere University. Unpublished.

University and Other Tertiary Institutions Act 2001.

Van der Bank, C. M., and Popoola, B. A. (2014). Quality assurance: A case study at a university of technology. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5 (23), 2129-2136. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p2129

Wilger, A. (1997). Quality Assurance in Higher Education: A Literature Review Stanford University: National Center for Postsecondary Improvement.

Zenawi, Z. (2012). Evaluating Teaching Quality in Higher Education: A Focus on Students’ Learning Experiences. PhD Thesis. Center for Educational Training, Assessment and Research (CETAR).




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v9i11.4535

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2022 David Baiko Ajuaba, Proscovia Namubiru Ssentamu, Marc Cutright

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright © 2015-2023. European Journal of Education Studies (ISSN 2501 - 1111) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library (Biblioteca Nationala a Romaniei). All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All authors who send their manuscripts to this journal and whose articles are published on this journal retain full copyright of their articles. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).