BENCHMARKING EDUCATIONAL QUALITY IN AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES: THE CASE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF BOTSWANA

A common mode of benchmarking educational quality in the world of academia is through the system of peer review. This system of benchmarking educational quality in many an African university adopts the use of external examiners to moderate academic programmes and student academic performances. But this system of external moderation was abolished about six academic years ago at the University of Botswana necessitating the establishment of an academic quality assurance regime for benchmarking educational quality in the University. The Centre for Academic Development (of the University) which was charged with the responsibility of developing pertinent guidelines for monitoring the new system mounted a series of workshops in aid of academic departments a year or so before the commencement of the new dispensation. A lot of efforts were devoted by the university academic departments to craft policies and procedures for academic quality assurance. For example, the Department of Mathematics and Science Education mapped out quality assurance matrices in five key areas of (i) academic programmes, (ii) teaching and learning episodes, (iii) teaching-learning resources, (iv) academic staff matters and (v) student matters. In the area of staff matters, for example, staff recruitment, staff development, staff retention and staff appraisal were covered. This write-up examines the procedures put in place in the Department to enhance and guaranttee quality assurance of its academic programmes