Perception of Academics on Quality Assurance in Higher Education in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Academic staff, being one of the main stakeholder groups, has a major responsibility to maintain quality standards in higher education. Their perception has a significant impact on the quality of the higher education system in any country. However, academics’ perspective on quality assurance (QA) in higher education has not been well explored yet in the existing literature, in particular in the Asian context. Thus, this study was conducted with the aim of finding out academics’ perception on QA in higher education in Sri Lanka. Purposive sampling technique was used to select academics from ten faculties namely; Faculty of Agriculture (n=68), Faculty of Engineering (n= 85) Faculty of Medicine (n=91), Faculty of Humanities and Social Science (n=115), Faculty of Management and Finance (n=81), Faculty of Allied Health Science (n=23), Faculty of Technology (n=39), Faculty of Science (n=80), Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science (n=30), Faculty of Graduate Study (n=1) of the University of Ruhuna. A Google form questionnaire consisting of five-point Likert scale questions (1= strongly disagree 5= strongly agree), closed ended questions and check list type questions, was prepared to collect primary data and it was sent to all academics via their university emails. The link was disabled after 14 days of circulation and 67 responses were obtained and the response rate was 10.9%. According to the results, 58.2% respondents were little aware and their knowledge on QA in higher education needs to be further enhanced. Wilcoxon Sign Rank test results obtained from the responses with respect to each statement on impact of QA on teaching and learning process revealed that all statements were valid and significant (p=0.000). According to the results of Wilcoxon Sign Rank test, the impact of QA on academics to develop their professional performance(p=0.000), enabling their continuous learning, motivating to involve in university activities, improve teaching strategies and methods (.000), helping to develop curriculum and course content(p=0.000) were significant. Majority (85.1%) of participants stated that identifying strengths and weaknesses in quality assurance practice is the major responsibility of the internal quality assurance system while 76.1% respondents identified best practices in educational delivery in Sri Lankan universities as the major requirement for the nationwide QA system in Sri Lanka. From the sample, 83.5% of respondents highly expected providing a national QA framework for respective higher educational institutes as a task of the Quality Assurance Council (QAC) of the University Grants Commission (UGC). Among the challenges faced by QAC, 73.1% of respondents identified lack of continuous monitoring and tracking system as the major challenge. The most important criteria that should be included in internal QA framework were; teaching, learning and assessment procedure (91%), assessment method of student progress and achievement (91%), research and extension (91%), curriculum content, design & review based on graduate profile (92%).This study finally concludes that academics has a positive perception on quality assurance in higher education and it must be further improved with removing the institutional, student and resources barriers in delivering a high quality education. Further, it suggests improving the internal QA framework QAC based on academics’ views. The research findings will contribute to bridge the knowledge gap in the existing literature by introducing an effective implementation and development of the QA system within the Sri Lankan higher education system.