Regulator’s ability to ensure quality in sector questioned

Malawi’s National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) has been accused of allowing accredited universities to operate and deliver academic programmes that breach the minimum requirements national law calls for.

The claims follow the launch of the NCHE’s new five-year strategic plan that emphasises oversight of human resources and promotes transparency, accountability, governance and management systems.

The NGO, the Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC), backed by students and parents, has argued that the NCHE needs to boost its performance, stating that it has been particularly weak in enforcing standards for the 21 private universities that operate in Malawi. The country also has seven registered public universities.

Level of standards criticised

The allegations made by CSEC Executive Director Benedicto Kondowe include that the NCHE, despite its Minimum Standards for Higher Education Institutions, has allowed universities to operate while employing under-qualified academics, lacking the masters degree the agency requires for teaching bachelor degrees.

According to the minimum standards, academics teaching masters and PhD courses must have PhD degrees, qualifications the CSEC says many lecturers lack.

The CSEC, an umbrella body for education activists, has also claimed that some universities fail to ensure that sufficient quality differences exist between bachelor, masters, and PhD courses, as required by council standards.

The organisation has raised concerns that rules about course length are being breached: four academic years for a Malawian bachelor degree, 18 months of full-time study plus 30 months of part-time study for a masters, and three years of full-time study plus four years of part-time study for a PhD degree.

Another concern raised by the CSEC is that student assessments are sub-standard, breaching NCHE requirements that continuous assessment shall be undertaken through practical exercises (such as internships, laboratory tasks, fieldwork and research), essays and tests, with some accredited private universities using exercises only.

The CSEC also claims that some courses that require practical assessments have been tested through examinations of theory only. Some examination papers, it claims, have not been assessed for validity and reliability. And some students have been allowed to repeat courses for several years when they are supposed to be completed and examined by one semester or year only.

Students sue over accreditation

One accredited private university under scrutiny following claims of low standards made by the CSEC and a whistle-blowing lecturer who cannot be identified is DMI-St John the Baptist University, a Catholic university with the main campus at Mangochi in the capital, Lilongwe, and Blantyre.

The NCHE launched an investigation in September 2021 into allegations that the university has awarded degrees to students who did not pass their examinations, while also employing under-qualified lecturers. The whistle-blower made an official report to the NCHE and copied the concerns to the Malawian media.

In 2019, Blantyre International University (BIU) and ShareWORLD International University were accused by students of offering law programmes unaccredited by the NCHE. In these cases, Malawi’s office of the ombudsman told the universities to discontinue these programmes.

BIU students also sued the university for offering unaccredited programmes, which led to the BIU working hard and ultimately securing accreditation in 2020. In the same year, Malawi College of Accountancy, a statutory body for accounting training, took the BIU to court over concerns about unaccredited degree programmes.

In comments to University World News, Kondowe accused the NCHE of abdicating its duty.

He said: “While the country is promoting private-sector involvement in the education sector, the issue of quality remains the concern. Private-sector involvement should not be at the expense of quality. The role of the private sector in education is globally recognised, but we want the private sector to be involved in a manner that protects the delivery of quality education.”

Sustained monitoring required

His key concern about the NCHE, which was established in 2011, is that, once a university and its programmes are authorised, the agency fails to ensure that the services continue to comply with mandated minimum standards.

“What we expected is that NCHE would be systematic in ensuring that they monitor compliance.” Once an institution or programmes are accredited, “monitoring is rarely done”, which allows some institutions “to forego the standards”.

“This is what has contributed to the poor standards in the private institutions of higher learning,” Kondowe said.

The NCHE has limited capacity to undertake this work, he argued. Indeed, some universities and colleges are even offering programmes that are not accredited at all, “a cost to students who later realise [that] what HE [higher education] they were offered is not recognised”. As a regulator, the NCHE “needs to protect institutions’ students”, Kondowe said.

Section 27(2) of the National Council for Higher Education Act (15 of 2011) by which the council was created, stated that the council should evaluate HE institutions for accreditation annually and programmes every four years.

Investigation into claims

NCHE Acting CEO Ambumulire Phiri told University World News that the council was looking into the claims of regulatory weaknesses and that it would respond to these concerns. A decision to further investigate the issues was taken at a council meeting in December 2021.

In an NCHE statement issued on 14 December 2021, Phiri cited challenges such as inadequate financial support from the government to enable it to fulfil its mandate, and poor co-operation from HE institutions, partly because of a limited understanding of NCHE rules and services. She admitted there was an inherent and growing “mistrust” of HE standards in Malawi and delays in implementing relevant laws, regulations, and rules.

Phiri said the NCHE had, nonetheless, established minimum quality assurance standards, policy frameworks, and had delivered registration of 25 HE institutions and their programmes.

She said that the new NCHE strategic plan involved the agency making a “firm commitment to work diligently with all stakeholders in the HE subsector” so that its goals “are well and sustainably achieved”.