Research On Higher Education Quality Assurance In Zimbabwe

Since independence in1980, Zimbabwe social, political and economic environments have experienced great changes, the higher education also experienced the process from the flourish to the decline. The excellent talents go to other countries for better life, the quality of teaching and research declined. In this Context, the government of Zimbabwe decided to continue to expand the scale of higher education, on the one hand, it satisfied the increasing demands of receiving higher education, on the other hand, it tried to solve the problem of brain drain. This makes the educational resources and fund less than before. With the influence of higher education globalization, the opportunity of talent flow is increased, going abroad for study or work is an important way for developing. Therefore credit transfer and the educational qualification certification are necessary. In addition, to promote the quality of higher education must be done without delay and higher education quality assurance is imperative.Through reading the related literature, spot investigation of local higher education and interviews of relevant personnel in Zimbabwe, after summarizing the higher education quality assurance system and practice, the paper sums up difficulties and challenges that higher education quality assurance in Zimbabwe are facing. Zimbabwe higher education quality assurance system includes external and internal quality assurance system. The Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education is an implementation institution on external quality assurance, it was established to register and accredit all higher education institutions in Zimbabwe. Higher education institutions belong to the internal assurance system. According to the guiding principle of Zimbabwe Council of Higher Education, the university develops quality assurance guidelines which fit their peculiarities, so does the faculty of the university. The main content of quality assurance includes teachers teaching, research and student learning. The ways of assessment mainly include peer review, external examiner evaluation and examination.In recent years, with the macro economic environment improvement, Zimbabwe higher education quality assurance has been paid attention to in the society. But it’s still facing many difficulties and challenges, which includes:(1) The shortage of finance is the main challenge that higher education quality assurance is facing. It influences all aspects of education, such as teaching equipment, teaching materials, the students’accommodation and so on, which has greatly affected education quality.(2) A large number of excellent staffs’leaving causing the shortage of human resources of higher education, personnel quality is not high, the low wages is the main reason that many teachers leave for better life. The government of Zimbabwe, in addition to improve the teachers’treatment, issues relevant policies to attract outflow talent back to servicing the country;(3) The higher education massification in Zimbabwe has become a trend, in order to meet the people’s increasing need of higher education, Zimbabwe’s government decided to continue to expand education scale. In the existing conditions, this will influence the quality of higher education. How to balance the relationship between the quantity and quality has become a big problem that Zimbabwe’s higher education is facing;(4) As a member of the Southern African Development Community, the regionalization of Zimbabwe higher education is also an inevitable choice. It helps Zimbabwe higher education integrate into the global better, and also improve the quality of higher education.