The Quality Management Directorate provides strategic leadership on

quality-related matters to the Mangosuthu University of Technology

Mangosuthu University of Technology is currently preparing for the Institutional Audit that is being conducted by the Council on Higher Education (CHE). This is one of the key mechanism that the Council on Higher Education uses, through its permanent sub-committee, the Higher Education Quality Committee, to assess higher education institutions’ internal quality assurance mechanisms and identify areas for improvement. University stakeholders have been trained to effectively participate in the development of the Self-Evaluation Report, which will be sent to the CHE on the 1st of April 2022. A CHE audit panel will conduct a site visit to evaluate the University in the period from 27th June – 1st July 2022. The outcome of this audit will be used to further strengthen the University business and the quality of provision. Its all hands on deck, until then.

The Council on Higher Education (CHE) is responsible for the quality assurance of higher education (Higher Education Act 101 of 1997, 1997; Higher Education Amendment Act No. 39 of 2008). The CHE assigns the primary responsibility for assuring a high quality of provision, in the core areas of Teaching and Learning, Research, and Community Engagement to higher education institutions, and is the responsibility of all students, staff, and stakeholders of the University (White Paper 3, 1997). At the Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT), the responsibility for institutional level quality assurance processes is assigned to the Quality Management Directorate (QMD). Through its quality assurance and enhancement processes, MUT ensures that the quality, appropriateness, and integrity of its teaching and learning, assessment, research, and community engagement consistently meet and aspire to exceed the minimum requirements of the University, the regulatory and professional bodies.


In line with its mandate and as part of its scheduled activities, the QMD has oversight of and supports the internal and external programme accreditation processes for new and existing programmes, conducts programme and thematic reviews, coordinates Module Surveys and the annual Graduate Survey and ensures the integrity of the assessment process through regular reviews and audits. Further, the QMD coordinates institution-wide quality-related projects (including regulatory body projects), provides quality-related support for professional body accreditation and performs other quality-related functions as mandated by the University’s Executive Management Committee (EMC).


The QMD has in place the requisite policies, procedures, strategies and resources that underpin the approach to quality assurance at MUT and takes into cognisance the institutional and national legislative requirements that are indicators of minimum standards necessary to support and enhance the quality of provision. Given that the University’s 2020-2025 strategic plan lists excellence in teaching and learning, research and community engagement as its Strategic Goals 1, 2 and 3, the QMD ensures that the outcomes of quality assurance processes are used to improve the quality of provision across the University. All quality assurance processes lead to the development and implementation of improvement plans, the progress of which is monitored and reported on regularly. In this way, MUT is able to ensure that it engages in a continuous cycle of planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating and that it is on the trajectory to improvement and achieving its strategic goals.