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© Proceedings of the Ruhuna Quality Assurance Sessions 2021 (RUQAS 2021)
st
21 September 2021

Results and discussion

More than half (52.2%) of the sample were males and 34.3% respondents belonged to the 45-55 years
age category. Majority of respondents were reported as probationary lecturers. When taking the

highest education qualification to account, the majority of respondents (56.7%) had a PhD. The highest

number of respondents were reported from the Faculty of Agriculture. According to the first objective
of the study, the perception of academic staff towards quality in higher education was assessed. The

results indicated that 58.2% respondents were little aware and needed to enhance their knowledge on
quality assurance in higher education. According to them, the means of good quality in higher

education are; quality of teaching and learning perspective (63%), knowledgeable staff (63%),

education that enhances students’ creative thinking (64%). It was reported that lack of infrastructure
facilities (76.1%) , lack of financial resources (70.1%), lack of critical and innovative thinking skills

(71.6%) are respectively institutional barriers, resource barriers and student related barriers in
delivering a high quality education.

Academics' perceptions on the development of an effective and efficient Quality Assurance (QA)

system in higher education was analyzed by five statements. The majority, 59.7% of respondents

strongly agreed to the statement on “An effective quality assurance system is a must in the higher
education sector”. A significant number, 50.7%, strongly agreed that “An effective quality assurance

system increases the awareness of quality teaching standards.” However, only a smaller number
(38.8%) of respondents strongly agreed that “Quality Assurance greatly focuses on innovation and

experimentation in teaching and learning”. Half of them (50.7%) stated that “Efficient quality
assurance process improves the quality of teaching and learning.” Also, 52.2% of respondents strongly

agreed that “There is a Global demand for maintaining a good quality assurance system in higher

education.”

Table 1 shows the results of the Wilcoxon Sign Rank test obtained from the responses with respect to
each statement on impact of quality assurance on teaching and learning process given by the

respondents. All statements were valid and significant (p<0.05). According to the results, the impact

of quality assurance on academics to develop their professional performance, enabling their continuous
learning, motivating them to be involved in university activities, improving teaching strategies and

methods, helping to develop curriculum and course content were significant.

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