Bella Sattar Director: Centre for Quality Promotion & Assurance Lesley Cooke

1. Bella Sattar Director: Centre for Quality Promotion & Assurance Lesley Cooke Specialist: Centre for Quality Promotion & Assurance SATN Conference Tuesday 29 November 2011 A conceptual framework for the quality assurance of programme design at the Durban University of Technology

2. Outline of our presentation • Evolution of universities of technology • Durban University of Technology: a changing university • Quality promotion & assurance • Quality enhancement: quest for the holy grail? • Curriculum renewal • A conceptual framework: QA of programme design • Countdown & blow-up factors • Bringing it all together • The quest for the Holy grail…

3. Evolution of universities of technology: genealogy (Winberg, 2005) • Genealogy shows: • how the past was different from, strange in relation to, or even threatening to the present • that the present is foreign and constitutes a break – often violent – with the past

4. Evolution of universities of technology: chronotopes • Chronotopes: • historically informed socially distributed modes of engagement • particular sets of practices for particular purposes • require a reconstruction of its context to be understood

5. Evolution of universities of technology: 3 chronotopes • Winberg (2005) identifies 3 chronotopes: • educating for the needs of industry • imitating the universities • rediscovering technology

6. Characteristics of chronotopes for curriculum development & quality assurance

7. DUT: a changing university • A merger of two technikons • influence of history • unintended consequences of convenor system • impact of merger • prevailing institutional culture

8. Quality promotion & assurance • Establishment of the CQPA & approach adopted • what’s in a name? • our approach and its resonance with ‘festinarelente’ (Hodgkinson & Brown, 2003) • A fifth chronotope emerging at DUT

9. Retro- and prospective QA • Retrospective and prospective quality assurance (Biggs, 2001) • retrospective – looking back on achievements & making judgments accordingly • prospective – focus on teaching & learning, congruent with developmental, facilitative and transformative approaches

10. Quality enhancement: quest for the Holy Grail? • Is a single definition of QE possible? • DUT: definition in the strategic goals (2009) • build on established foundations for QA • lead to transformative change • grounded in a systems-level, collaborative approach to understanding and improving the quality of the entire student experience • HEA definition (2008) • process of taking deliberate steps at institutional level to improve the quality of learning opportunities

11. Quality enhancement • Quality teaching transforms students’ perceptions of their world, and the way they go about applying the knowledge to real world problems; it also transforms teachers’ conceptions of their role as teacher and the culture of the institution itself (Biggs 2001) • Dissolve the barriers between academic, administrative and support staff through discussion and sharing of information and through joint ownership of problems and solutions (Hodgkinson & Brown 2003) • Model for quality promotion & assurance at DUT

12. Improve Inst. Audit Improvement Plan Strategic Plan Enrolment Plan Academic Plan Plan internal reviews External Review Internal Programme/ Department Faculty/ Sector University STUDENT Module Resource Allocation Learning, teaching & assessment Act A model for quality promotion and assurance

13. Affirmation of our approach • ‘quality as transformation is central to the development of educationally-oriented models’ (Srikanthan & Dalrymple, 2007) • ‘education managers and academics still do not understand that QA is something you do, not wrangle about, that to have a positive effect it needs to be motivated by the desire of the whole organisation, including support staff and students to create the best student learning experiences, the best research within the available resources’ (Doherty, 2008)

14. Curriculum renewal a ‘violent’ break with the past and a strategy for shaping the future

15. Curriculum renewal

16. Developing graduate attributes • Generic qualities, skills and attributes that are the hallmark of DUT graduates • The need for conceptual underpinning • Barrie (2004) developed a framework of 7 conceptions of graduate attributes ranging from: • basic prerequisite skills taught in remedial classes, to • complex abilities that infuse learning and knowledge - learnt through the ways students engage with the university • Each of these conceptions has implications for quality assurance

17. A conceptual framework: QA of programme design • A conceptual framework: • is a graphical & narrative explanation of the main dimensions of a particular area of study • presents the key factors or variables & the presumed relationship between them (Miles & Huberman, 1984) • Curriculum renewal is the context for the development of the framework

18. Elements of the conceptual framework • Collaborative relationships • Academic standards in the context of programme design • Internal & external influences on programme design & academic standards

19. Elements of the conceptual framework • Collaborative relationships • Working relationships between internal & external role-players contributing to quality enhancement • Such relationships promote organisational change (Oliver & Hyun, 2011)

20. Collaborative relationships Reviews; accreditation; feedback processes Quality improvement of LTA practices QE Curriculum design; pedagogy

21. Elements of the conceptual framework • Academic standards in the context of programme design • vexing issue of defining academic standards – cannot be naïve • bringing together national requirements for qualifications and university-specific aspects • increasing complexity of learning and specificity of academic standards

22. National SAQA Institution DUT NQF (HE) HEQF Qualification types Registered qualifications Programme Design 10 9 8 7 6 5 Level descriptors & Critical cross field outcomes Doctoral degree Masters degree PG Diploma B Hons B degree (480 credit) Adv. Diploma B degree (360 credits) Adv. Cert Diploma Higher Certificate Qualification descriptor; purpose; outcomes; credits etc . Requirements of professional bodies University graduate attributes (outcomes & assessment) Programme outcomes Module outcomes Increasing complexity of learning Academic standards: increasing specificity Academic standards in the context of programme design

23. Elements of the conceptual framework • Internal & external influences on programme design & academic standards • bringing together: • collaborative relationships • external environment (in the main promoting retrospective QA) • internal environment (promoting both retro- & prospective QA)

24. SAQA & NQF Level descriptors Broad consultation on qualifications to be registered Registered qualification Programme purpose External regulatory framework Programme outcomes CHE Standard setting; HEQC Programme accreditation criteria; Professional body standards Institutional culture, values & collaborative relationships DUT Regulatory framework Module outcomes Learning programme design DUT Academic standards - graduate attributes Academic standards Internal & external influences on programme design

25. Countdown & blow-up factors (Perkins & Wilson, 1999) Countdown: plan into action • Clarity of direction • Leadership & support • Linkages & collaborative relationships • Foundation for QP & A • Opportunities presented in the HEQF • Maturity in external environment for QA Blow-up: efforts eroded or destroyed • Complexity of prevailing cultures • Curriculum development & QA legacy • Resistance to change – comfort zone of current intellectual habits & routines

26. Bringing it all together • DUT as a changing university • student-centred focus • QA embracing enhancement • curriculum renewal & improving LTA practices • ensuring count-down factors prevail • strategies to ameliorate blow-up factors • the hallmark of the fifth chronotope

27. The quest for the Holy Grail… The biggest challenge of all: How to win the hearts and minds of the ordinary academic, how to shift the perception of quality assurance from one of external policing or central control to one of internalised, individual, professional academic responsibility, bringing with it the wish, intention and means to do even better by one’s students. Will this take another ten years? – at least. Holy grails do sometimes take a while to find (Williams 2008).

28. Thank you