IARP is a national initiative in which all South African higher education institutions (HEIs) are participating. It is an opportunity for in-depth retrospection, deep introspection and mindful projection about the core functions of HEIs and the quality management and quality assurance systems that enable the core functions. The core functions are teaching and learning, research and community engagement. The IA Manual explains this in detail.

Reflexive praxis means let’s go inside ourselves, give our narratives regarding the 16 standards and provide evidence to support the narrative. It is about reflecting on our experience based upon our vision, mission, goals, pillars and enablers in our strategic plan. It means “applying one’s experience to oneself, while reflecting upon it, examining it critically, and exploring it analytically” (Zawada 2021). This is done through data gathering and report writing inclusive of your voice – students, academic staff, professional services staff, alumni, and external stakeholders who work with us.

The purpose of the audit report is to provide an overall evaluation of our quality management and quality assurance at UKZN in getting ready for the new Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) that will be rolled out in 2024. This is based on the four focus areas and the four standards assigned to each focus area.  See the focus areas and standards here. See the guidelines here. We need narrative and evidence from you to conduct the evaluation.  

There are a number of ways to identify quality management systems and determine the functionality, limited functionality or non-functionality of quality management systems. The IARP Framework defines the quality management systems as: “the institutional arrangements that assure the quality of learning and teaching, assessment, research, and community engagement. Such an integrated, internal system supports, develops, enhances and monitors the institution’s delivery of the core functions of higher education (IA Framework, 2021:9). Therefore, when collecting information and writing and compiling our SER and PoE, we want to know what quality management systems support our core functions of teaching and learning, research and community engagement and how this is being done. This is why we need your perspectives, once you reflect upon your position. If we need to change, help us create improvement plans.

Reflect on this as an evolving integrated quality management system at UKZN. An integrated quality management system means a specific focus on the management of the core academic functions of teaching and learning, research, and community engagement, as framed by our UKZN vision, mission and strategic goals (IA Framework, 2021:14). In other words, the extent to which we have an integrated institutional quality management system based on who we say we are and what we say we doing in view of our 2017-2021 Strategic Plan.

We started working on IARP several years ago. The University contracted with the Council on Higher Education (CHE) for participation in 2021. This is our letter of agreement. The Steering Committee and working groups were approved in 2021 and we picked up momentum with inclusion of the University community in IARP participation from 2021 year. The various reports are provided on this website in the interest of transparency. CHE engaged us in capacity-building before the onset of the audit through short courses and webinars. Capacity-building was offered to all staff in public and private higher education institutions so that we would be ready for the IARP.

The standards are that upon which we are evaluating ourselves. The guidelines unpack the standards. The guidelines ensure that we keep focused on the reflexivity as expected by the IARP.  We are not expected to respond to each and every guideline. But we should be able to see from our response that the guidelines helped shape those responses. We must use the standards to rate ourselves on a four-point scale: (1) non-functional, (2) needs substantial improvement, (3) functional or (4) mature. See the story diagrammatically, here.

Audit culture may be viewed as an elaborate policing mechanism based on minimum compliance and where concerns about quality, risk and a crisis of trust in the higher education sector exists. The IARP is neither about forensic auditing nor is it an inquisitorial investigation that amounts to a tick box exercise. Rather, we are concerned with quality culture. This is about everyday practices infused across the UKZN irrespective of role players and inclusive of both the student voice and experience.  This is why reflexivity is central to our practice. Zawada (2021) Institutional audits as reflexive praxis.

According to CHE CEO Dr Whitfield Green, based upon years of inquiry, the CHE is developing a new QAF that will be rolled out nationwide in 2024. Our evolution into QAF 2024 will be shaped by our level of functionality as indicated in the four-point scale. CHE seeks for the new QAF to encapsulate and reflect the realities of changing national, regional and global higher education systems. See the Quality Assurance Framework for Higher Education in South Africa (2021:13-15). If for example, we are judged as ‘mature’ we would be able to approve our own academic programme. So, the stakes are high which why we need your involvement. Understand how peer review works.

HEQC Chairperson Prof Angina Parekh informs us that: “Vigorous intellectual critiques, debates and discussions took place, and there was deep introspection on the trajectory of quality assurance over the past two decades. This included a meta-analysis in determining how the performance of the HEQC in respect of quality assurance and promotion functions could be improved and enhanced in terms of their efficiency and effectiveness. The result is a transformed quality assurance framework that is progressive, responsive and considers the myriad different needs of the higher education system. The intention is for the QAF to be the primary strategic driver for a changing quality assurance regime in higher education as we enter a new decade. There is an overriding consciousness that the QAF signals significant shifts that will have significant implications for higher education institutions.” Quality Assurance Framework  for Higher Education in South Africa (2021:9).

This means that the differentiated approach to higher education institutions will carry on after the ‘Institutional audits as reflexive praxis’. In other words, how our very existence is judged, in terms of having quality management systems for teaching and learning, research and community engagement feed into an integrated institutional quality management system, will determine the level of autonomy that we will have under the QAF 2024.

Quality means the integration of fitness of purpose, fitness for purpose, value for money and transformation IA Framework (2021:8)  .  Fitness of purpose refers to fulfilment of CHE’s mandate according to its mandate under the Higher Education Act of 1997 and the NQF Act of 2008, as amended. CHE does this by streamlining its functions and processes to be more effective, efficient responsive and innovative (QAF Framework, 2021:33). As to fitness for purpose, this is where we come in as UKZN. We must ensure that our ways of knowing and delivering teaching and learning, research and community engagement services are fit for the South African context as well as the regional, continental and global contexts. Value for money is about, among other things, our students getting “the best bang for their bucks”. Transformation is broadly construed – inclusive of but way beyond demographics and curriculum development to individual, collective and institutional states of being that are fair, equitable and socio-economically conscious and conscientious.

The UKZN Project Renewal experience, school and programme reviews serve purposes different from that of the IARP. The former three are useful in the reflexive aspect of the IARP. The IARP is using that reflexivity to specifically assess quality management systems and how that quality is assured in a way that allows us to carry out our vision, mission, goals, pillars and enablers. The IARP finds us participating in a nationwide higher education endeavour to determine our status going forward under the QAF 2024.

There is a Steering Committee and there are seven working groups. The composition of the Steering Committee and the seven working groups are identified on this website along with the terms of reference for each group. Based on the information that you provide during the working groups, we will rate ourselves on the four-point scale for each standard. After the submission of our SER and PoE, a CHE appointed expert panel will visit us from 12 to 16 September 2022 and rate us on the four-point scale for each standard. The panel will conduct interviews of students, staff, alumni and external stakeholders. They will triangulate information in the SER and PoE with information shared during interviews.

This is an opportunity for introspection into yourself individually and as part of the various multi-level collectives of the University community. How authentic are you as a spiritual being having a human experience? To what extent do you integrate your personal and professional self? Do you question different types of knowledge or just go along with the status quo? Why or why not? If you note changes that need to occur – how are you acting upon being the change that you wish to see? If so, how? If not, why not?

There is a team of report writers collecting the information that you provide. You are not being asked to write the report but to provide the narrative and evidence that will be used to write the report. In order for you to see yourself in the report, we need your participation. You can complete the templates on this website, fill in the feedback boxes positioned in different areas of this website. Information for report writers should be sent to IAreflexivepraxis@ukzn.ac.za.

The evidence can be documents, it can be links to where documents are stored (such as minutes of meetings that demonstrate instilling quality management of teaching and learning research and community engagement), it could be case studies about how you have taken responsibility for instilling quality management and assuring that quality. This is far beyond quality assurance by QPA. Rather, quality is everyone’s business at all levels throughout the University.

If you care about the South African higher education landscape and your role in it, then you should care about the QAF of 2024.