Abstract—This paper seeks to present an overview of Quality
Assurance (QA) issues, trends and challenges in higher
education. To assist with this task, various issues pertaining to
quality assurance experienced at the University of South Africa
(Unisa) will be used to illustrate some of the issues raised where
deemed appropriate. Emphasis is on issues that are relevant to
the management of quality in relation to student support at
Unisa. The paper intends to not only demonstrate a case for a
need for QA management in higher education but to also
identify possible areas where improvements can be made to the
way QA systems are being managed in Higher Education.
Index Terms—Higher education, management of quality,
quality assurance, quality of service, student support.
Lindiwe Mabuza is with the University of South Africa (Unisa) P O Box:
392, Unisa 0003, South Africa (e-mail: mabuzlok@ubnisa.ac.za).
Cite: Lindiwe Mabuza, "Unpacking Quality Assurance Issues in Distance Education, Using the University of South Africa, a Mega Open Distance Learning University as an Example," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 513-516, 2014.