ABSTRACT

The third chapter addresses the first objective by presenting and analysing policy perspectives on quality at the macro and meso levels. The national policy perspective is based on interviews conducted with three key ZIMCHE officials representing the Higher Education Quality Assurance Committee, the Directorates of Registration and Accreditation as well as Academic and Institutional Audit. Their experience as ZIMCHE employees ranges from two to six years. The information from the in-depth interviews with 10 university representatives from six public and four private institutions, three of which are church based, is also included in this chapter. Given that they were largely similar; these policy perspectives are presented together. This makes it easier to present some of the university representatives’ responses to the national policy perspective. It also addresses the first research objective and enables an illustration and disjuncture of quality as policy and quality as practice.