Institutional Accreditation & Compliance Manager at Mancosa

Job Description

Core Functions

The successful appointee will be responsible for delivering on important accreditation and quality assurance projects, including but not limited to:

Accreditation

• Provide leadership on national reviews, accreditation and compliance requirements by ensuring the institutions policies, systems and procedures are effective and fall within the accreditation and regulatory requirements.
• Lead teams, provide clear expectations and handle the needs of the staff members who work under the Accreditation & Compliance Manager.
• Create mechanism to promote and continuously improve core academic functions.
• Manage and maintain registration and accreditation status in SADC regions.
• Manage registration and accreditation of higher education partnership institutions.
• Review and submit the HEQC accreditation applications and the SAQA and DHET applications in accordance with the criteria specified by each regulatory body.
• Oversee the work of the Accreditation and Compliance unit and manage tasks and activities in terms of accreditation, reaccreditation, site visits, institutional research and programme review and development.
• Successfully manage and coordinate conditions responses, representations, improvement plans.
• Evaluate and upload approved HEQC reaccreditation applications for the DHET reregistration cycles and overseeing the process by which the programmes were reviewed.
• Manage the collating, compiling and submitting institutional accreditation applications for regions.
• Manage institutional preparations for site visits and institutional audits.
• Assess and improve accreditation processes in areas of responsibility.

Compliance

• Provide leadership on the implementation of all regulatory requirements and in doing so conduct an annual internal institutional regulatory compliance review.
• Ensure the completion of all reporting requirements and submission of the DHET Annual Report in adherence to the guidelines provided by the DHET.
• Manage the verification of SAQA records and overseeing NLRD uploads to the HEQCIS according to the standardised template issued.
• Develop and maintain an auditing programme around compliance for the institution.
• Identify and assess potential compliance-related risk areas and a compliance and risk mitigation programme around all related compliance activities to detect, prevent, and resolve issues.
• Maintain a schedule of all compliance related activities across the institution and follow-up on completion of these activities across all departments.
• Develop policies and procedures for the institution on compliance.
• Collect and maintain compliance data.
• Lead the planning, coordination and facilitation of successful Site Visits.
• Attend appropriate meetings, conferences or workshops held by regulatory bodies and provide feedback.

Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) and Institutional Audits Framework (IAF)

• Provide leadership, guidance and oversight of quality promotion and capacity development, institutional audits, standards development, national reviews, programme accreditation and re-accreditation as well as institutional adaption and change management aligned to QAF and Framework for Institutional Audits.
• Conduct gap analyses in context of the QAF and Institution Audit Framework.
• Ensure that the implementation of the Continuous Improvement Plan and align the improvements to the QAF and IAF.
• Ensure that successful audits are conducted on the implementation of improvements that was identified in the continuous improvement plan.
• Design, the development and implementation of the digital Quality Assurance Management System (QAMS).
• Workshop stakeholders, review and implement improvements to the QAMS.

Capacity Building

• Develop a strong team to enable the accreditation and compliance deliver on its mandate.
• Restructure teams and workloads in accordance with operational and academic requirements.
• Identify training and development opportunities for Monitoring and Evaluation team and implement succession plans.
• Identify critical skills essential for the quality service delivery of accreditation & compliance unit and take the responsibility for further development of relevant and essential skills to improve team’s performance.
• Implement compliance workshops across the institution, inclusive of a regional roadshow.

Stakeholder Relationship

• Build and sustain relationships with key external regulatory bodies.
• Facilitate internal and external stakeholders to:
  • develop detailed project plans related to the institutional audit / site visit
  • review and edit compliance & quality assurance documentation
  • provide expert input for the institutional digital Quality Assurance Management System (QAMS)
  • provide expert input in logistics planning as well as execution of the audit / site visit itself.

Qualification Development

• Project manage the process of new qualification development and submission to accreditation authorities including responding to conditions where required.
• Quality assure the curricula of qualifications developed for accreditation to ensure that programme accreditation criteria meet all HEQSF requirements.
• Review, propose amendments and participate in governance and programme approval committees.
• Ensure compliance with relevant professional bodies in context of design and accreditation of programmes where required.
• Ensure payments to are signed off for submission of programme to CHE.

Programme Review and Audits

• Monitor review and audits of programmes.
• Ensure these reviews follow established processes and are taken through the appropriate governance structures.

Special Projects

• Manage and coordinate relevant ad hoc projects such as research projects, and quality improvement projects across the institution.

Minimum Requirements

Qualifications

• Minimum master’s degree or equivalent in the field of Business and Commerce.

Experience

• Minimum of five years of progressively increasing responsibility working directly in a quality assurance or accreditation role, in a higher education institution with a focus on academic quality.
• Ability to conduct institutional research to collect, analyze, and report on data and benchmark against regulatory standards and industry best practices.
• Direct knowledge of, or experience with, regional/national and programmatic accreditation preferred.
• Meticulously edit documents possessing a high level of attention to detail is required.
• Manage complex and highly sensitive materials and to foster a culture of confidentiality.
• Strong work ethic with the ability to excel in a demanding, outcome-oriented, and dynamic environment with little supervision.
• Creativity and the ability to envision and achieve a positive outcome.

Competencies

• Impeccable English verbal and written skills.
• Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the South African Higher Education landscape.
• High level of computer literacy.
• Strong project planning, monitoring, and evaluation skills.
• Critical thinking and ability to assess, interpret and mitigate against risk.
• Demonstrated ability to manage self and subordinates.
• Analytical skills exercised effectively in context of implementing solutions and creating opportunities.
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
• Change management and effective stakeholder engagement capability.
• Demonstrate and operate high levels of integrity.