Challenges of accreditation in an African university: reflections from the Eduardo Mondlane University, in Mozambique

ABSTRACT As elsewhere in Africa, Mozambique established, during the 2000s, a national higher education quality assurance system to cope with the country’s rapid expansion of higher education. In 2014, the national quality assurance agency began the accreditation process. From 2015 to 2020, the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), the country’s oldest and largest public university, has accredited about 30 academic programmes. Based on UEM’s case and on reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action, this article examines the challenges of accreditation in Mozambique and in Africa. The reflection focuses on challenges related to the process and instruments, organisational setting, resources and policy and impact of accreditation. These challenges suggest that, alongside establishing quality assurance mechanisms in Africa, attention should also be paid to identifying and dealing with challenges constraining or facilitating implementation of these mechanisms, particularly if quality assurance systems are intended to improve the quality of institutions and make them accountable.