Quality Beyond Rankings: Mission-Led Quality Assurance as a Sovereignty Practice by African Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Global university rankings have increasingly come to function as a proxy for quality, shaping institutional priorities, internal quality assurance (IQA) practices, and scholarly labour in ways that may conflict with locally defined missions and the public good. This research is a narrative review of contemporary literature on ranking effects, audit culture, and responsible research assessment, in order to develop an evidence-based model of Mission-Led Quality Assurance (MLQA) as a sovereignty practice by African higher education institutions. A transparent search-and-screen procedure of Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, and a specific Google Scholar search identified 14 peer-reviewed sources that meet the inclusion criteria, and one underwent thematic comparison through programme-theory-inspired synthesis. The synthesis reveals that (i) rankings strengthen audit logics and attract proxy substitutes around what is readily counted; (ii) QA units often repackage ranking indicators into internal dashboards and create mission drift and strategic gaming; and (iii) reform announcements around responsible metrics often stall aimlessly without governance redesign, plural evidence standards, and participatory judgement. The study suggests a four-pillar MLQA framework, mission-based standards, pluralised evidence, deliberative review cycles, and public-benefit accountability, and describes implications of implementation to institutional leaders and quality agencies. However, the research was limited because it was based on published literature and was not representative of the region. Future studies should embrace multi-site case studies and discussion with the stakeholders to confirm the validity of MLQA.