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Exploring stakeholders' experience of implementing quality enhancement in selected South African universities

In 2014, the Council on Higher Education in South Africa introduced the Quality Enhancement Project (QEP) with a view to addressing the failure of traditional audits to improve student success and throughput. Through the lens of Bowe, Ball and Gold’s (1992) policy implementation theory, this article explores stakeholder experiences of the implementation of this intervention at four universities in South Africa. A qualitative, multiple case study research design was applied and data were collected using in-depth individual interviews, focus group interviews and document analysis. The findings revealed that whilst there were both positive and negative outcomes in Bowe et al.’s (1992) three contexts, the context of influence had the potential to influence change, while those of policy text production and practice did not bring about the envisioned change. This highlights the complexities of policy implementation due to the different contexts of and approaches to QEP implementation. The findings suggest that the QEP was unsustainable due to a project mentality among stakeholders, the effects of the unstable Higher Education environment, the lack of a change theory, policy borrowing, insufficient funds and a lack of resources.