Internal Quality Assurance Systems in Namibian Higher Education: Stakeholder Perceptions and Guidelines for Enhancing the System

Abstract

[EN] Namibian higher education institutions have been striving to enhance quality assurance in the last decade. Building internal quality assurance (QA) capacity has been challenging. We explored the perceptions and experiences of internal quality assurance stakeholders. This research is embedded in Margret Archer's social realism theory as a guide to improving internal QA systems. We adopted a case study design based on an interpretive paradigm. Two purposively selected higher education institutions with university status were selected, and we recruited participants from the universities’ population of stakeholders based on their roles. We conducted semi-structured interviews with stakeholders. The findings showed that although both institutions had QA units, the institutions were still facing challenges to attain effective quality implementation and administration. Challenges to implementing QA include a lack of financial resources and students’ engagement in the quality assurance activities.