Student participation in quality assurance in South African higher education is often limited to sporadic initiatives and less institutionalised policy assertions. The challenge of enhancing student participation in quality assurance is often made complicated by the lack of clear policy guidelines and conceptual frameworks which are informed by a shared understanding of the notion of student participation in quality assurance. This state of affairs is also made more complicated by the fact that everywhere else there are always conflicting assertions about the nature and extent of student participation in quality assurance depending on whom you ask as Fuller and Paton (2007) assert. The conceptual mapping of models shaping the student participation in quality assurance discourse shows that there are inherent tensions regarding the space and place for the student voice in the academy. These tensions are often constructed around the elitist notion and the intellectual description of the academic space in which universities function. This paper unpacks how values and perceptions that shape the student participation in quality assurance in South African higher education find expression through models that universities adopt to define the relationships they have with students. It further juxtaposes that conceptual map with the findings of the research conducted by the HEQC in twelve public higher education institutions and three private higher education providers. That research which was conducted through focus group interviews with class, programme and faculty representatives revealed that students are often given attenuated space and less robust roles to play in shaping the quality of the total learning experience they receive from institutions. The nature and scope of their role as recipients of the total learning experience is often shaped by perceptions universities have about students which are often informed by intellectual power inequalities finding expression through traditional pedagogies like transmission teaching and imparting of knowledge. Values entrenched in these philosophical positions about generation and socialization of knowledge shape policy positions adopted by universities to engage or disengage students in the conversation about the quality of provision. The paper ends with suggested guidelines for the inclusion of students in shaping the quality of provision in declared, espoused, taught and experienced curricula (Samuel, 2007) to curtail the effects of students “stepping in and out of quality” on daily basis in one institution.

The paper uses the combination of trend analysis, and focus group interviews with student and faculty representatives in twelve public higher education institutions and three private providers.

Students are not given sufficient space to shape the quality of provision in higher education. This results in student having uneven experiences in relation to the quality of the total learning experience they receive from univerities. The paper concludes by mapping guidelines for inclusion of students in quality assurance.