Many university faculties are scrambling to repair their reputations, after the Council on Higher Education accredited only seven of 23 master’s in education (MEd) programmes on offer in South Africa.
The MEd is a crucial component of university education qualifications, providing a platform for schoolteachers seeking promotion, and for students aiming at an academic career. The MEds reviewed are generally in education management.
The seven accredited degrees met the minimum criteria of the Council on Higher Education’s review body, the higher education quality committee. Three universities had their accreditation withdrawn, while four averted damning judgement by choosing to discontinue their programmes after current students complete their degrees.
Five institutions were given ”conditional accreditation”, implying that they do not meet all minimum standards. They have submitted improvement plans to the committee and are now nervously awaiting the outcome. Two MEds received provisional accreditation, as they have not been running long enough to produce graduates.
The committee’s deputy executive director, Lis Lange, said the results indicated ”the quality of the provision of the MEd is very unevenly distributed”. One problem was academic rigour. ”The majority of the programmes reviewed were master’s by coursework and in many instances these were not offered at a master’s level,” she said. Other common deficiencies were lack of staff expertise and inadequate staff-student contact.
The review has sparked fierce debate, reminiscent of the storm that followed the MBA review two years ago. Magda Fourie, vice-rector of the University of the Free State, whose accreditation was withdrawn, said ”quality assurance systems and review and accreditation processes may be well intended and designed, but are implemented by people who are human.
”What complicates this is that different review panels visited different institutions. The application of review criteria was open to interpretation.”
Free State had challenged its rating, to no avail. ”It’s a pity that the review process, itself in a developmental phase, should lead to the closure of programmes.”
Jonathan Jansen, Pretoria University’s dean of education, said the implications for institutions were huge. ”Their status and standing are at stake and they face financial implications [in terms of lost government subsidies]. Question marks will certainly be put in the minds of present and past students, and employers, about the quality of their qualifications. And staff could face retrenchment.”
Jansen said the review was needed to expose weak programmes but he, like Fourie, believes the review system is ”immature”. ”Panels consist of people who are either unknown or unestablished in the academy, several without doctoral degrees, who have never supervised advanced students to completion, but make judgements about the same.”
Lange conceded this. There were 23 panels with a total of 138 evaluators, and ”it is very difficult to constitute panels in which the level of expertise … is evenly distributed. It is true that not all panels have the same level of seniority among all members”. However, ”the chairs of all panels had to have doctorates and seniority in the system”.
Mary Metcalfe, head of Wits University’s school of education, Sarie Berkhout, professor of education policy studies at Stellenbosch, and Sinda Ngubentombi, Walter Sisulu University’s dean of education, praised the review for interacting with and consulting universities.
”While the results are an anxiety, they are, if anything, generous,” Metcalfe said. ”The process was rigorous enough and we must accept the results.” Berkhout said each institution received a preliminary report ”and could disagree. University responses were taken very seriously.”
Ngubentombi said the Walter Sisulu assessment was ”fair and just”, and ”afforded the university a valuable opportunity for self and external evaluation”. It had submitted a detailed improvement plan.
The committee has now started reviewing the other main education programmes — the BEd, the postgraduate certificate in education and the advanced certificate in education. The results should be ready by September next year, Lange said.
Passed, failed and must improve
Full accreditation: Wits, Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan, KwaZulu-Natal and Rhodes.
Provisional accreditation: Pretoria and Cape Peninsula.
Conditional accreditation: North West (Mafikeng campus), Fort Hare, Unisa, Venda and Walter Sisulu.
Accreditation withdrawn: Free State, North West (Potchefstroom campus) and Limpopo.
Discontinuing the MEd: Durban University of Technology, Tshwane, Zululand and Vaal.
Results to come: University of Johannesburg and Central University of Technology.