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STUDENT QUALITY LITERACY AND EMPOWERMENT

STUDENT QUALITY LITERACY AND EMPOWERMENT. Prem Naidoo Higher Education Quality Committee Council on Higher Education -South Africa naidoo.p@che.ac.za. INTRODUCTION. Increased demand and supply of higher education Increased supply implies increased access and choice

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STUDENT QUALITY LITERACY AND EMPOWERMENT

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  1. STUDENT QUALITY LITERACY AND EMPOWERMENT Prem Naidoo Higher Education Quality Committee Council on Higher Education -South Africa naidoo.p@che.ac.za

  2. INTRODUCTION • Increased demand and supply of higher education • Increased supply implies increased access and choice • But also increased supply by fly by nights(degree mills) with unsuspecting students falling prey • There is a need for students to be empowered in order to evaluate the accuracy of claims and to make informed decisions about institutions and programmes. • Students need to know what constitutes quality higher education institutions and quality programmes. • Apart from students, quality literacy is also becoming increasingly important for employers and the general public.

  3. THE UNESCO BRIEF • A desktop study mapping of existing tools for informing students on quality on higher education provision worldwide. • A strategy for developing tools for empowering students to make informed decisions to evaluate the learning experiences offered by higher education level. • This strategy should include key questions concerning the learning experience and status of the institution and lessons learnt from the experiences of South Africa in developing quality literacy for students.

  4. PROPOSALS AND LIMITATIONS • Propose a possible framework for developing quality literacy among potential first-time entrants (prospective students) and current students in education. • The framework is informed by approaches and strategies which have been successfully implemented in some other countries. • The study has certain limitations. • It has been largely restricted to a desktop search via the Internet and only English websites were searched. • Little information directly from higher education institutions • But all full members of the International Network for Quality assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) have been approached for information and analyses have been made of some articles and manuals.

  5. DEFINING QUALITY LITERACY • Prospective students need make informed decisions about institutions and programmes. • Quality literacy for students entails the following aspects: • Awareness of how the higher education institution and programmes work. • Understanding what can be expected of a quality higher education institution and programme. • Using quality related information to inform judgements and decisions about the quality of an institution and/or programme. • Knowing how student opinion can best be heard and used in respect of the quality of institutions and programmes.

  6. QUALITY EMPOWERMENT • Quality empowerment entails the concept of agency - the ability not only to participate in but also to shape education. • Current students are equally responsible to shape the quality of their learning experiences. • Empowered students have the ability: • to make the correct choices with regard to institutions and programmes, • to play a positive role in promoting and enhancing the quality of education processes and outcomes.

  7. HEQC (SOUTH AFRICA) CASE • Developed an information campaign targeting prospective students that: • Demystified national quality assurance system, definitions etc. • How to distinguish between a legal and fly by night provider? • How prospective students should read adverts? • Used the mass media to disseminate the information. • Used newspapers that were geared to high school distribution. • Developed protocols for advertising and run workshop with providers on protocol and ethical advertising. • Monitored adverts in mass media and wrote to those that broke the protocol. • Marked reduction of illegal providers.

  8. CHEA CASE (USA) SOME KEY QUESTIONS • How does accreditation work? • What are the strengths and weaknesses of institutions or programmes in which the student is interested? • What skills and capacity can enrolment in the institution help the student achieve? • What kinds of information about quality are accreditors uniquely positioned to provide to the students? • What vehicles could be used to expand information to students? • How much information should be made available to students? • What are the intended and unintended consequences of releasing information?

  9. INFORMATION CAMPAIGNS TO INFORMATION LITERACY • BOTH CHEA AND HEQC USE INFORMATION CAMPAIGNS • DOES INFORMATION CAMPAIGNS LEAD BETTER DECISION MAKING IN STUDENTS? • IN SA HAS LIMITED SUCCESS • NEED TO MOVE TO INFORMATION LITERACY • NEED FOR WORKSHOPS AND TRAINING TO GET STUDENTS IN SIMULATED DECISION-MAKING SITUATIONS • WHO SHOULD HELP WITH THIS?

  10. ARE STUDENTS CENTRAL TO QUALITY AND QA? Harvey (1996) argues that students as participants should to be - Enhanced through the provision of an educational experience that enables the development of a continued improvement of knowledge, abilities and skills. Empowered not just to select their own curriculum, nor to monitor the quality of the service they are provided, nor even to construct their own contract – as valuable as all these things might be – but empowered as critical and transformative thinkers. HENCE STUDENTS ARE CENTRAL TO QUALITY AND QA. IN FACT THEY ARE CO-CONSTRUCTORS OF QUALITY

  11. APPROACHES TO STUDENT INVOLVEMENT IN QUALITY ASSURANCE • THREE APPROACHES • Students feedback • Student rights and responsibilities • Student as co-constructors

  12. STUDENT INVOLVEMENT • ‘Student Satisfaction Approach’ • Developed by Harvey for the University of Central England and now adopted by many institutions in Britain. • The model entails a full cycle of • data collection, • reporting and • action that enables management to make improvements that are directly informed by student concerns.

  13. STUDENT RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES • NO COUNTRY HAS LEGISLATION IN THIS REGARD • PRACTISED AT VARYING DEGREES AT INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL EITHER AT VOLUNTARY OR COMPULSORY BASIS • CLOSEST TO THIS IS THE APPEALS PROCEDURE • IS THESE A NEED FOR THIS APPROACH IN HIGHER EDUCATION? • WHAT ARE ADVANTAGES OR DISADVANTAGES OF SUCH APPROACH?

  14. STUDENTS AS CONCONSTRUCTORS • National Unions of Students in Europe (ESIB), which sees students as active shapers and assessors of quality i.e. co-constructers of quality. • launched a major initiative to improve quality assurance processes and student involvement in: • Collecting, analysing and disseminating theory, good practice and student involvement in quality assurance in Europe, focusing on well-developed and less developed quality assurance systems. • Raising awareness of the importance of student involvement in quality assurance processes. • Identifying and promoting European-wide strategies to involve student organisation in quality assurance. • Promoting co-operation of European student organisations on themes of the Bologna process.

  15. LESSONS FROM ESIB • How could an initiative, similar to that of the ESIB, be expanded to countries where national quality assurance frameworks exist or cases where they are in early developmental stages? • What role should student organisations and national quality assurance agencies play in promoting student involvement and empowerment in quality assurance? • Can such an initiative be launched in all countries? • Under what conditions would such an initiative work?

  16. FRAMEWORK FOR STUDENT LITREACY AND EMPOWERMENT How can student quality literacy and empowerment be effectively introduced - • 1. Within its particular socio-political context? • 2. Given the unequal quality of provision among higher education institutions? • 3. Given the state of development and implementation of quality assurance in higher education? • 4. Given the fact that the process of student quality literacy and empowerment has already begun? • 5. How and who should enhance the information literacy about quality for both prospective and current students? • 6. Which of the three approaches of student involvement should be used?

  17. PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS INFORMATION CAMPAIGNS DECISION MAKING WORKSHOPS WHICH ROLE PLAYERS AND HOW? CURRENT STUDENTS INFORMATION CAMPAIGNS DECISION MAKING WORKSHOPS STUDENTS FEEDBACK STUDENT RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES STUDENT AS CO-CONSTRUCTORS POSSIBLE FRAMEWORK FOR STUDENT LITERACY AND EMPOWERMENT

  18. STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE STUDENT LITERACY • Information campaigns • Training workshops • Research and Development • Development of Good Practice Guides

  19. NEXT STEPS • To share information on experiences with regard to student quality literacy and empowerment. • Except for the student feedback approach, very little in other areas. • The other areas of student quality literacy and empowerment that this paper has identified are still in the early stages of development. • To encourage the establishment of working groups in each country as well as internationally. • INQAAHE and UNESCO could play a major role to enable sharing of information, identification of good practice, undertaking of research and development of capacity and expertise.

  20. THANK YOU PREM NAIDOO HEQC

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