Challenges Facing Enforcement of University Quality Assurance Standards in Fostering Compliance in Tanzania

Compliance with quality assurance standards worldwide requires universities to be strongly enforced by external and internal quality assurance bodies. Tanzania, as in the case of other countries, enforces quality assurance standards through national and institutional quality assurance bodies. Despite such efforts, non-compliance cases are still found at various university stakeholders’ levels. This study explored the challenges in enforcing quality assurance standards to foster universities’ compliance in Tanzania. The qualitative approach and multiple embedded case study design informed the study. Data was collected from the four public and private universities involving 46 participants who were purposively selected. In addition, data was gathered through focus group discussions, individual interviews and documentary reviews and then analyzed by content analysis. The study found that academics' resistance to quality monitoring of teaching, financial challenges, inadequate quality assurance awareness, quality assurance officers acting as police officers, underestimating the quality of tests, and lack of detailed national guidelines for some enforcement initiatives were the challenges encountered in enforcing quality assurance standards. Such challenges impede the successful enforcement of quality assurance standards. Therefore, they contribute to the universities' non-compliance cases. As such, this study recommends that national and institutional quality assurance bodies continue educating and guiding their stakeholders about the essence of quality assurance standards and how to implement each enforcement initiative to foster compliance. Also, universities must keep searching for multiple sources of funds to enhance their financial stability and sustain quality assurance standards.