Science academics' perceptions of quality and the practice of quality promotion and quality assurance procedures in higher education: A case study

This paper investigates, through a case study, a forgotten aspect in quality in higher education, viz. the perception of academics. From this perspective, it explores general quality promotion (QP), quality assurance (QA), quality control (QC) and quality management (QM) strategies at the institutional level of a Historically Disadvantaged University (HDU), its Faculty of Science, four of its departments as well as individual academics. The study found that only 50% of the academics had some conception of quality higher education as described in the literature. The overall conclusion was that university-, Faculty- and department-wide QA systems and self-assessments did not exist. No formal QA or QC mechanisms and related strategies were in place at the institution, its Faculty of Science or the four investigated departments. Furthermore, the academics interviewed rarely practised formal QA, QP, QC and QM procedures.