Council on Higher Education

The Council on Higher Education (CHE) was established by the Higher Education Act of 1997 as an independent statutory body. That Act conferred two major areas of responsibility on the Council. The first was the mandate to advise the Minister of Higher Education and Training (or the Minister of Educa… read moretion at the time) on all matters of higher education in order to further the goals of equity and quality in the system, and to help it respond to economic and social development needs, provide effective and efficient management and contribute to the public good. The second major responsibility was the establishment and management of an external quality assurance system for higher education, to be carried out through its permanent committee, the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC). The NQF Act of 2005 placed a further responsibility on the CHE, which is now also the Quality Council (QC) for higher education, and as such it must manage its sub-framework of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), that is, the Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF).