Open Access Article

Quality Assurance Strategies in Higher Education: The Case of Ghanaian Polytechnics

by Patrick Swanzy1, Anthony Potts2.

1Institute for Post School Studies, University of the Western Cape, South Africa; 2University of Adelaide, Australia

Published in: Education Research and Perspectives, Volume 44, 2017, Pages 100-127;
DOI:TBD

Abstract

This study investigated the internal quality assurance strategies Ghanaian polytechnics enacted in order to improve graduate outcomes. A qualitative methodological approach via in-depth interviewing of twenty key informants and document analysis was used to establish how polytechnics in Ghana addressed problematic situations in quality assurance. The findings revealed that their internal quality assurance strategies focused on staff and students, where quality concerns were most prominent. These strategies seem to have enhanced teaching and learning in the polytechnics but there was the need for them to re-institutionalise their internal quality systems to enable them to deliver quality vocational and technical education.