​The Council on Higher Education (CHE) has initiated a new quality assurance (QA) cycle that requires all public universities and private higher education institutions to undergo an institutional audit in 2022.

The overarching purpose of an institutional audit, as an external QA mechanism, is to evaluate, validate and verify the coherence and effectiveness of an institution’s internal quality assurance system in enabling student success, and improving its core academic functions, namely, learning and teaching, research, and community engagement (social impact). Audits are based on institutions’ self-evaluation reports, followed by a peer review site visit, whereafter good practices and improvement actions are identified.

To initiate Stellenbosch University (SU)’s institutional audit, SU has agreed to submit a self-evaluation report (SER) and a portfolio of evidence (PoE) to the CHE by 30 June 2022. This will be followed by a peer review site visit from 31 October to 4 November this year.

We have reached an important milestone in the completion of Stellenbosch University’s first draft self-evaluation report (SER) for the period from 2018 - 2021. The first draft of the SER will be released for internal comment on 9 March 2022 and can be accessed here. SU students and staff have the opportunity to participate in the first internal participation phase that closes on 23 March 2022.

You are invited to submit your comments on the first draft SER on the platform, which can be accessed here​. Submissions close on 23 March 2022.

Thank you for your input and participation!