Reimagining quality, reigniting collaboration: Eswatini and Lesotho

Curriculum and competency-based education: making education relevant

Quality assurance is only as rigorous as the learning it safeguards. Another central thread of the workshop was curriculum development and relevance, ensuring that higher education remains responsive, resilient and aligned with the realities of national, regional and continental priorities. 

Participants explored how competency-based and outcome-driven approaches keep education relevant and impactful, emphasizing that quality frameworks in curriculum design and development should drive continuous renewal rather than static compliance. 

As Eswatini and Lesotho pursue visionary national development agendas, the workshop emphasized the need to align institutional and national frameworks with regional and continental standards, including the Revised Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Certificates, Diplomas, Degrees and Other Academic Qualifications in Higher Education in African States, known as Addis Convention, and the Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education. Such alignment would be key in creating a harmonized African higher education space, one that promotes academic mobility, regional integration, and mutual recognition of qualifications across borders.

Collaboration as a cornerstone of quality

Discussions revealed a common realization: quality assurance reaches its best when it is collective. The workshop reaffirmed a growing regional understanding that peer learning, benchmarking, and cooperation are essential foundations to creating resilient higher education systems that can adapt and thrive in times of volatile changes.