Browsing by Author "Turyasingura, Wilberforce"

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Battling Academic Corruption in Higher Education: Does External Quality Assurance Offer a Ray of Hope
(Higher Learning Research Communications, 2019-06-17) Nabaho, Lazarus; Turyasingura, Wilberforce
The post-1980s changes in the global higher education landscape have triggered a burgeoning of incidents of academic corruption in higher education institutions. Since 2000, the discourse on how to combat academic corruption has gained traction in higher education and quality assurance is advanced as one of the strategies for fighting corruption in higher education. In 2016, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation) issued a “wakeup call” to quality assurance systems to take up a leading role in the battle against academic corruption in view of the massive societal risks associated with the vice. However, there is a dearth of empirical and conceptual studies on how the quality assurance systems, in general, and external quality assurance systems, in particular, can take up a leading role in the crusade against academic corruption. This conceptual article, using the crime– punishment model as an analytical lens, discusses how the national quality assurance agencies (and systems) can exercise the leadership role in combating academic corruption. The article advances the setting of academic integrity standards, institutional and program accreditation, accreditation of academic journals, sharing information and promoting whistleblowing, monitoring of institutions, applying sanctions, and ranking of higher education institutions on the basis of integrity indicators as options that are available to quality assurance agencies to exercise their leadership role in combating academic corruption. These approaches are likely to create both incentives and disincentives for the higher education institutions and staff in connection with engaging in academic corruption. Nevertheless, the article takes cognizance of the idea that external quality assurance is necessary but not sufficient in combating corruption at the academy level.
An exploration of the ‘African (Union Commission’s) perspective’ of quality and quality assurance in higher education: Latent voices in the African Quality Rating Mechanism (AQRM)
(Tuning Journal for Higher Education, 2019-04-19) Nabaho, Lazarus; Turyasingura, Wilberforce
Quality assurance of African higher education is at the top of the region’s development agenda. Prompted by the imperative to enhance the quality of higher education, the Africa Union Commission is implementing the African Quality Rating Mechanism (AQRM). The AQRM is a continental tool that affords higher education institutions an opportunity to conduct self-assessment and compare their performance against similar institutions based on a set of common criteria. The mechanism is envisaged to engender institutional cultures of quality and enhance the quality of African higher education. However, a dearth of knowledge exists about the latent notions of quality in higher education that the AQRM aims to assure and the implicit institutional-level quality assurance practices in the AQRM. Therefore, this interpretivist article, based on a review of the AQRM survey questionnaire, answered the following research question: What notions of quality in higher education and the institutional-level quality assurance practices are inherent in the quality standards of the AQRM survey questionnaire? The findings revealed that quality as fitness for purpose and exceptional are the notions of quality in higher education in the AQRM. Nevertheless, fitness for purpose is the dominant notion of quality and this symbolises an imperative to re-direct higher education to serve social and economic ends. Distinguished (excellent) teacher awards, applied research excellence awards, staff professional development, tracer studies, external examination, and the involvement of key external stakeholders in programme development are the latent institutional-level quality assurance practices in the AQRM. These quality assurance practices are in sync with the notions of quality and aim at bridging the gap between the academy and the labour market. Methodologically, the AQRM survey questionnaire is devoid of benchmarks to inform the rating, and quality assurance practices such as student evaluation of teaching, peer observation of teaching and moderation of examination items are unnoticeable in the survey questionnaire.
Institutional and legal factors affecting environmental management in a decentralized system of governance: A case of wetlands in Uganda
(Uganda Management Institute, 2015-03) Turyasingura, Wilberforce; Mbasa, Bernard Arinaitwe
Decentralization of natural resource management is considered by many development agents, researchers and environmentalists, as a way to improve efﬁciency and equity in natural resource management. Under the decentralization system of governance that Uganda adopted in the 1990s, the management of natural resources was also decentralized. In this regard, Uganda has undertaken several initiatives in a bid to delegate natural resource management responsibilities to local governments and build local capacity for this purpose. The initiatives have ranged from development of an institutional framework for environmental management such as National Environment Management Act (1995), the Land Act 1998, and the Local Government Act 1997 among others, to establishment of funding mechanisms for wetland management both at the Central and Local Government levels. In spite of these efforts by the Government, the level of environmental management in a decentralized framework is still unsatisfactory. There is evidence of massive wetland encroachment, and the anticipated beneﬁts from wetlands management have not been realized. This study was conducted to examine the extent to which funding mechanisms, human resource capacity and legal framework inﬂuence environmental management in a decentralized system of governance. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected; analysis was done using correlational analysis and content analysis for quantitative and qualitative data respectively. Findings revealed that all the three variables under investigation had a moderate signiﬁcant relationship with effective environmental management. The ﬁndings were corroborated by responses from various stakeholders interviewed in the course of the study. The study recommends that both the central and local governments should develop a sustainable funding mechanism and an efﬁcient planning and budgeting system; develop strategies for attraction and retention of key professional staff in environmental management and streamline existing legal framework for natural resource management in enhancing sustainable environmental management in the country.