Shanziwe Abesi Mijere¹, Harrison Daka^1,, Mukuka Lydia Mulenga – Hagane¹, Ireen Bwembya², Boniface Banda³, Friday Chazanga⁴

The study examined the implementation challenges faced by both academic and administrative staff of quality assurance mechanisms at the University of Zambia. The study employed a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, collecting quantitative data through questionnaires from 89 academic staff and qualitative data through interviews with 10 administrative staff and 5 Quality Assurance Directorate personnel and 5 students in leadership. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, multiple regression and thematic analysis. Findings revealed that resource constraints emerged as the predominant implementation challenge (84.27%). Qualitative findings revealed improved role clarity and streamlined processes attributed to quality systems, but severe understaffing and infrastructure limitations hindered implementation. Based on these findings, the study recommends implementing a tiered quality assurance training framework and establishing a decentralized quality assurance support structure with designated officers in each school.

Quality Assurance, Higher Education, Staff Perceptions, Academic Performance, Institutional Effectiveness