Quality Assurance for Higher Education from the Perspective of a University’s Organisational Structure, Approaches and Challenges in the Somali Context

Abstract

In countries such as Somalia emerging from lengthy internal civil conflict, the potential for effective employment generation depends on having skilled and trained personnel, as well as effective higher education institutions. Thus, this study tries to contribute to that endeavour. The target population for the study is drawn from one public and all private universities. The selection criteria were satisfied by the 54 universities that offered at least four-year undergraduate degrees (bachelor’s degrees. The study employed purposive sampling to choose components, factors, items, or attributes of respondents whereby key informants (521) responded to nine predetermined questions. Using the standard definition of quality assurance, bivariate logistic regression analysis has been used to evaluate the current level of quality assurance. Regarding purposive sampling fielded themes, the education authority should address the persistent shortage of skilled instructors, the lack of financing, and the fact that HE programs are primarily male-oriented. This could be fixed by putting in place appropriate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The cascaded hierarchy of university governance—the board, council, senate, and student governance—was examined using logistic regressions. As a result, in testing the effect of the board on the council/senate, the odds of not having a board were 0.6 (−0.35, 0.51) times lower with a χ 2 of 0.72 and a p-value of 3.97 × 10 − 1 @ 95% CI. That is to say, in university governance, the probability of not having a board and council/senate is statistically more significant than otherwise. The same is true on the Board of Student Governance and the Council/Senate over Student Governance, with odd ratios and confidence intervals of 0.79 (-0.06, 0.86) and 1.3 (0.35, 1.16) with p-values of 6.43 × 10 − 1 and 6.5 × 10 − 1 . In conclusion, Proper quality assurances should be established by the government, including the performance metrics, evaluation, and assessment of higher education institutions. Also, the government should financially support the higher education endeavour.