The Influence of the HEQC's institutional audits on teaching and learning at three South African universities

Institutional audits constitute one of the ways through which South Africa’s Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) executes its quality assurance mandate. The study investigated the effect of the HEQC’s institutional audits on teaching and learning at three South African universities. A case study design was used for the investigation. A total of 58 participants spread across the three selected universities were interviewed in 27 interview sessions. The findings indicate that the audits have had a positive, albeit limited and variable, effect on teaching and learning, and on the support functions for teaching and learning at the three universities. Though there seems to have been considerable progress made in some areas, in other areas the institutions seemed to be struggling to implement their improvement plan effectively and probably need support. Some of the recommendations based on the present study’s findings are that the HEQC should put in place more robust follow-up and monitoring mechanisms, including compulsory follow-up site visits, and that institutional audits be conducted at more universities to test the findings of this study.http://alternation.ukzn.ac.za/2016-10-30am2016Internal Medicin

Attitudes toward plagiarism : the case of undergraduate health sciences students at the University of Pretoria

The primary aim of the study on which this article is based was to investigate undergraduate health sciences students’ perceptions, attitudes to and awareness of plagiarism at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. The sample comprised 696 students from the School of Medicine and School of Healthcare Sciences in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Analytical tools included frequencies, custom tables, independent t-tests and one-way analysis of variance. Exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis were used to assess construct validity and internal consistency of the instrument tool respectively. Findings revealed that overall, the sample group of students seem to be generally aware of the University’s plagiarism policy and what it entails. However, it became evident that there is still a fairly significant percentage of students whose responses suggest a lack of understanding and awareness of plagiarism. Findings further revealed statistically significant differences in attitudes to plagiarism and awareness of it among the six programmes and across the levels of study. The paper advocates that plagiarism policies should be clearly written and communicated to ensure that students have consistent understandings of how plagiarism is defined, its purpose, due process and specific consequences.http://alternation.ukzn.ac.za/Homepage.aspxam2019Internal Medicin