The Practice of Ethiopian Higher Education Institutions in Assessing the Quality of Education: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative analysis on the practice of HEIs in assessing the quality of education. Despite the relentless effort made to include several more institutions, the study was finally confined to only two institutions: Kotebe College of Teacher Education (KCTE) and St. Mary’s University College (SMUC) due to some factors. Therefore, the study draws conclusions on and makes recommendations to only these two institutions. Included in the data gathering process were department heads of the two institutions, the Dean of Kotebe College of Teacher Education and the President of St. Mary’s University College. A set of questionnaires, which had different contents according to the specified objectives, was distributed to 6 department heads in each institution. To gather detailed information about the activities being carried out by these institutions to assess the quality of education, thus managing to maintain its quality, an interview was held with the Dean and the President of KCTE and SMUC, respectively. In addition, the study was backed up by evaluation of documents. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data indicate that SMUC’s institutional assessment practice is far better than that of KCTE. Yet, both are expected to improve their practice in some respect. The findings of the study are expected to provide a better understanding of the practice of the institutions in terms of carrying out institutional quality assessment, thus benefiting students, instructors, department Heads, Deans, and Presidents of HEIs, the Higher Education Relevance and Quality Assurance Agency (HERQAA), potential employers and the community at large.