The Purposes and Practices of Quality Assurance in Ethiopian Higher Education: Journey, Adaptation and Integration

Abstract

This article includes an analysis of quality assurance in higher education as a travelling idea. Based on interviews and site visits to stakeholders in Ethiopia’s higher education, work with Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency (HERQA) staff over several years, and deskbased research, the idea’s “journey” from northern industrial settings to Ethiopia and its adaptation and integration into a developing higher education system is explored. The transfer of ideas is described in a context of a rapidly expanding system and a largely unregulated private market. Ideas of what higher education is for (culture, employability, democracy, entrepreneurialism) and methods of quality assurance (through quality assessment, quality audit inspection, location roles and relationships for quality assurance responsibility) are found to be valued and prioritised differently in Ethiopia. The article explores how ideas are adapted to the operation of differential power amongst stakeholders. Contradictions and dilemmas are described as resulting in creativity and tensions. The article concludes with the challenges faced by the emerging Ethiopian model of quality assessment and assurance, the relevance of different purposes and methodologies to the development context, and the consensus that has emerged from this process about values and processes for quality assurance.