Compliance with accreditation measures in Ghanaian universities: Students' perspectives

The article is based on a study conducted among students in selected Ghanaian universities in the year 2015 to confirm the continued maintenance (or improvement) of the minimum quality standards, based on which accreditation had been granted to their respective institutions. Although the students might not have been conversant with the accrediting agency’s standards, these requirements were provided as possible answers from which the students were to select appropriate and unbiased responses, based on their observations. These indicators related to curriculum, student assessment policies, student assessment of course content and teaching (SACT), policy on ethics, student/staff ratios, physical facilities and library provisions. The responses from both public and private university students confirmed varying degrees of conformity and, or compliance with the Ghanaian accrediting agency’s standards by the universities under its regulation

Enhancing the student learning experience: the perspective of academic staff

Original article can be found at: http://www.informaworld.com/ Copyright Taylor & FrancisBackground: Quality enhancement in higher education is essentially a planned process of change that leads to continuous improvement in the effectiveness of the learning experience of students and the students' experience of higher education. Published literature that explores the concept in the reality of practice is sparse. Purpose: The overall aims of this study were to explore academic staffs' experience of enhancing the student learning experience and gain an understanding of the factors which create opportunities for, and barriers to, the promotion of quality enhancement activity. Design/method/sample: A qualitative research design was employed to capture a range of academic staffs' views from within one faculty in a higher education organisation. Data was collected by way of three digital voice recorded focus group interviews (n=26). Informants were from a range of subject disciplines and professional groups including nursing, midwifery, social work, radiography, physiotherapy, psychology, pharmacy and life sciences. A modified version of the data analysis method advocated by Chenitz and Swanson (From practice to grounded theory: Qualitative research nursing; Sydney: Addison-Wesley, 1986) was used to analyse the data. Findings: The analysis suggests the existence of three conceptual categories: 'Establishing Readiness', and 'Connecting with the Students' and 'Developing a Work and Learning Environment'. The emergent categories are discussed and considered within the broader context of higher education and extant literature.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio