TheQualityofHigherEducationinDevelopingCountries.pdfVIP

The Quality of Higher Education in Developing Countries Needs Professional Support Sarah Bunoti Lecturer, Department of Psychology, and Member of the Proficiency in General Education Committee, Kyambogo University, Kampala, Uganda Acronyms: OBE – Outcome Based Education FGDs – Focus Group Discussions NCHE – National Council for Higher Education Abstract In developing countries, higher education, and particularly university education is recognized as a key force for modernisation and development. This has caused an increase in the demand for its access, accompanied by a number of challenges. This paper explains the learners’ purpose of acquiring university education, the basis for selection of course of study, the assessment of the quality of higher education, the challenges faced by learners, as well as suggestions for improvement. The paper is based on a case study of one public university in Uganda. Data was collected through i) Focus Group Discussions with students in the various faculties, ii) In-depth interviews with officials in the Uganda National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), lecturers, counselors , management and administrative staff and iii) Document analyses of Conference papers and journal articles. Findings show that the quality of higher education in developing countries is influenced by socio–cultural, academic, economic, policy, political and administrative factors all of which are inextricably interwoven. This also applies to choice of course. The discussion of the findings is backed up by desk research on a wide range of related literature on learners’ challenges in other universities in the developing world, especially Africa. The paper concludes that the quality of higher education in developing count