By Nontobeko Moimane 14 July 2022

The institutional audit task teams have started conducting meetings to provide the required information per the designated CHE focus areas. The task teams are managing the process by confirming the relevant stakeholders who would best placed to provide responses to the standards in each focus area. The institutional audit is used to determine the extent of VUT’s capability to use integrated quality management systems and processes to improve the quality of its learning and teaching, research, and integrated engagement with the community.

The chairperson of each task team, along with the  Quality Promotion Unit (QPU) held various task team meetings to ensure that all teams could respond to the CHE’s focus areas and standard guidelines. The task teams were formed according to the Focus Areas  as follows:

• – Task Team 1: Focus Area 1 – Governance, strategic planning, management, and leadership support to core academic functions.
• – Team 2: Focus Area 2 -The design and implementation of the institutional quality management system that supports the core academic  functions.
• – Task Team 3: Focus Area 3 -The coherence and integration of the institutional quality management system that supports the core academic  functions.
• – Task Team 4: Focus Area 4 -The Curriculum development, learning, and teaching support for the likelihood of student success.

Each task team is led by a standard lead who will manage the collation of information and a Portfolio of Evidence (PoE)Lead who will manage the collation of evidence relevant to each standard. All task teams are expected to deliver their part of the Self-Evaluation Report (SER) to the Institutional Audit Steering Committee (IASC) for consolidation and then into institutional governance structures for consultation and final approval. The VUT SER, in its entirety, comprises an institutional profile, a critical self-reflection, and a portfolio of evidence (PoE) based on the focus areas.

According to the CHE Framework of Institutional Audits, VUT must consider its quality management systems and how it enhances the likelihood of student success. “Student success” is defined in the Framework as follows:

• for the individual student, the attainment of graduate attributes that are personally, professionally, and socially valuable; and for the institution, students’ academic persistence; academic results that focus on equity of success in terms of race, gender, and disability, as well as a focus on the minimum time to completion, and students progressing successfully to postgraduate studies, or into employment or economic activity.

All four task teams must submit their Self Evaluation Report (SER) to the Audit Steering Committee by 15 September 2022. Staff and students are urged to cooperate with all the task teams during this audit process.