Programme design and credit weighting in tertiary institutions in Zimbabwe: Meeting minimum quality assurance standards

Abstract

This article provide a framework for the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZIMCHE) for setting minimum benchmarks for programme design and credit weighting by both public and private universities in Zimbabwe. The setting of minimum benchmarks is critical especially at present, when ZIMCHE has begun developing quality assurance instruments and guidelines that ensure controlled flexibility, comparability and competitiveness in academic systems and practices among the country’s tertiary institutions. The present article is the first attempt to stimulate and promote dialogue and reflection on important indicators of quality assurance standards such as programme design and credit weighting. The dialogue is necessary for two reasons: (a) ZIMCHE only started assuming its role as a quality assurance agency seriously in 2013 and the quality assurance discourse is still fairly new to most of its members. This means that they are learning on the job and (b) tertiary institutions are expected to develop their credit system policies and still achieve convergence with others in the absence of a National Qualification Framework (NQF) and Credit accumulation and Transfer (CAT) guidelines. The author assumes that ideas raised in this article do not only provide a framework for achieving a national template for academic benchmarking but stimulates discussion and dialogue on achieving that template.