Quality Assuring Fiji Higher Education Institutions
The Situation
The Higher Education Commission Fiji (HEC) is the unified regulator for higher education within the Republic of Fiji. Its responsibilities span the registration, funding, and quality assurance of Fiji Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), and the development and maintenance of the Fiji Qualifications Framework.
As part of a five-year grant from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, HEC initiated a project to develop their regulatory practice. This project focused on developing risk-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems and a business case for developing an employer led work-based learning system. The project was designed to focus on the needs of all stakeholders.
Our Role
Our consultants were contracted to develop the monitoring and evaluation framework on behalf of HEC.
During the research phase, findings led to a scope expansion which involved the development of a business case and cabinet paper for the Skills Council Fiji establishment, with the Council’s mandate being to address the needs of the Fijian labour market’s demand for skilled trades and technicians.
Our Approach
The project commenced with a significant research phase. This was carried out through an extended series of structured interviews with HEIs, industry stakeholders, and policy makers. The resulting report identified four principles for the M&E of higher education in Fiji.
We then delivered a series of workshops with stakeholders to develop an M&E framework for HEC built around the four principles:
Registration built around self-assessment and evaluation to manage entry into the HE system.
Annual monitoring to ensure that the HEIs are maintaining performance at acceptable levels.
Periodic review to renew registrations and to manage longer term risks to the HE system.
Risk profiling and management built into the M&E processes.
Following framework approval, our consultants worked with the Commission staff to develop a range of processes and tools required for implementation, all of which were contextualised to Fiji according to our research and with the assistance of HEC staff. This included comprehensive performance indicators and the assessment tools, risk identification and management processes required to implement risk-based registration and review, and performance monitoring systems.
The Outcomes Achieved
The Higher Education Commission continues to use this framework to quality assurance higher education institutions across Fiji, providing one of the Pacific’s strongest quality assurance mechanisms in education. The work also resulted in a review of the delivery models of vocational education and the need for greater industry involvement in the delivery of work-based learning and qualification design.
