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Zimbabwean Government Strengthens Quality Assurance of Private Colleges

PROPHE Summary (by Prachayani Praphamontripong):

The Zimbabwean government has announced a new quality assurance policy requiring five levels of qualification confirmed by an awarding examination council for all candidates enrolling at private colleges and taking examinations from Zimbabwean Higher Education Examinations Council. This governmental move stems from private colleges apparently enrolling under-qualified students with insufficient basic education requirements and some colleges boosting their pass rates by cheating during examinations. Four private colleges have been de-registered for failure to comply with existing examination legislation. The government argues its new policy will benefit the whole education system and the candidates as well as ensuring quality education in the country.

For the full story, see AllAfrica.com, June 14, 2005, "All Hexco Students Must Have O-Levels," by The Herald.

PROPHE Observation (by Daniel C. Levy):

Here is another example of government crackdowns on alleged private higher education abuses. The article does not make clear how widespread the alleged abuses are or how they compare to practice in the public sector. The policy changes appear to follow a common contemporary tendency by governments: raise the quality indicator requirements and assume that quality will improve, in this case, private higher education quality. As in some but not all other government crackdowns internationally, there is the question of how much the moves stem from government hostility to the private sector.

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