This article discusses the concept employability or graduateness within the context of the South African higher education environment. It reflects on a satisfaction survey that was conducted at a university of technology in order to evaluate the perspective and satisfaction of the graduates' employers. This aligns with the institution's quality management philosophy that is underpinned by the notion of customer satisfaction. The survey measured the employers' satisfaction as well as their perspectives on the importance of attributes that are required from graduates in the workplace. The article argues that institutions should develop strategies to embed key skills in the curricula and recommends continuous reviews to evaluate the successful implementation of these strategies to enhance employability.

The university is a complex open system with a range of stakeholders each with a variety of (different) expectations. It is important for universities to be aware of these expectations and to ensure that they are achievable (Ulewicz 2017:93). Universities are key role players in improving employability and to enhance economic growth. They are preparing students with the knowledge and skills required for the contemporary labour market (Tran 2016, 58-59) and should respond to governments’ neoliberal pressures in finding ways to address the requirements of the labour market and to apply mechanisms to safeguard their graduates from unemployment. Vaal University of Technology (VUT) in South Africa, conducted a Tracer Study to gather information on graduate’s experience and to evaluate their abilities and skills as employees. This is important as knowledge of the outcomes of the educational experience forms the basis for quality enhancement.This presentation focuses on tracer studies as mechanisms to enhance programme quality and will reflect on the methodology that VUT followed, how the results inform the development of institutional remedial action plans and lessons learnt. This study may contribute to the dearth of research available on tracer studies in the sector.

Focus groups have the potential to provide rapid and timely collation, integration and assembly of the views of a variety of different types of stakeholders into a plausible theory. This article reflects on a tertiary education institution's utilisation of focus group interviews (FGIs) as a qualitative evaluation instrument, using action research as the methodology. Our results suggest that employing focus groups is a valuable method of gaining more insight into and adding more depth to quantitative findings during quality management. Results from focus groups enable quality assurance practitioners to provide better remedial action plans. A set of guidelines is provided for the effective conducting of focus group interviews as part of an institutional quality assurance system.

Institutions of higher learning are required to rethink strategies to eliminate "institutional waste". The sector is facing numerous challenges with resource restrictions. Factors such as the impact of the Fees-must-fall campaign in South Africa and the global tendency of government initiatives to increase student enrolment targets, while subsidies, on a continual basis, are on the decrease, places institutions in higher education under enormous financial distress. This article argues that the majority of institutions' quality management systems in South Africa and abroad are underpinned by the principles of Total Quality Management (TQM). There is a dearth of research on the implementation of Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma in higher education. This article investigates the integration of Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma as mechanisms to reduce waste in the higher education sector. It reflects on how this integration can enhance a university's core business and institutional functions through processes of continuous quality assurance, the latter is characteristic of the principles of TQM.

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