This paper tries to define, measure, monitor, and improve the internal and external quality of respective institutions in relation to the national Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) framework in the context of international settings. The acquisition of sustainable advanced Higher Education (HE) became critical to aspirations and in the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge in rebuilding and reconstituting countries’ emerging institutions and industry. In a country, such as Somalia, that is coming out of protracted internecine civil strife, its employment generation potential is clearly dependent upon the availability of essential skilled personnel, and that is intertwined with an edification of post-secondary excellence.

But, as several recent studies revealed ( Farah, 2020 ; HIPS, 2020 ; Ali & Farah, 2023 ), the overall state of Somali HE is contextually complex due to the absence of effective Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) and controlling bodies that deliver External Quality Assurance (EQA); thus, the privately owned and funded higher institutions, with the exception of the recently reconstituted sole government-owned Somali National University, have been left to cater for themselves ( Eno et al., 2015 ). Consequently, this places a significant strain on the availability of skilled labour in order to meet the modern demand for trained workers with the necessary abilities of the economy’s producing sectors ( Agarwal, 2006 ). Notwithstanding little or no progress in reforms covering a number of sectors and sub-sectors of the economy, there is little up-to-date debate on reorganisations in establishing and improving the quality assurance evolution for the HE institutions and their academic programmes. In that respect, this paper tries to highlight the level of required external quality assurance, if any, and institutional self-evaluation and its attendant academic programmes of the HEIs in Somalia, and then appropriately lays down an agenda for reforms in the HE sector in Somalia in order to fill the existing gaps.

Quality is often referred to, in addition to its relevance to a myriad of private and public sectors of life, as a relative concept since different definitions of quality fit under different connotations and surroundings; thus, there is no commonly agreed-upon definition of the term ( Elshaer, 2018 ; Williams & Harvey, 2015 ). Several definitions of quality are presented in Garvin’s (1984) criteria referenced by Elshaer (2018) . According to Pfeffer & Coote (1991) , traditionally, the idea of quality has been closely connected to the conception of distinctiveness, “of something different, superior, or ‘high class’ to its comparatively associated equal. The traditional idea of quality tacitly implies exclusiveness for a particular club” ( Williams & Harvey, 2015 ). The idea of quality in HE is said to be measured through an appraisal of what is serviced but assumes that the distinctiveness and inaccessibility of elitist educational institutions had traditionally been a synonym of “quality”. Evidently, this sort of quality is earmarked for specific sectors of the community and not attainable for most people, barely offering standards against which to measure quality ( Williams & Harvey, 2015 ).

There is a broad background of the traditional quality assurance insofar as HE setup and the possibilities obtainable to the Quality Assurance (QA) agency to plan and its mechanisms are concerned. The old-style interpretation in education is that universities exemplify quality and thus it is not essential to prove it. Consequently, it is inoperable in measuring quality in HE, for it was a nebulous entity for determining quality. A good example was the construction of quality in German tertiary quality assurance, as they adopted the unquestionable “apodictic” internal assurance to quality with an explicit role by academic staff who were at the time poised; the system works well. To summarise, it’s mainly academicians that are the vanguards of quality, synonymous with excellence here, adaptability, innovation, and continuous improvement to standards passed through a set of quality checkups to determine their accuracy ( Williams & Harvey, 2015 ).

In recent times, Higher Education Quality Assurance (HEQA) has advanced as a relative notion that has different meanings for different people: students may concentrate on the educational facilities offered and the utility of education for future employment. Academic staff, instead, may be motivated by the teaching-learning method. Institutional management may give precedence to the current and future successes of the institution. On the other hand, parents may reflect on their children’s achievements and, as a result, their future employability. Lastly, employers may consider the competence of the graduates of the respective institutions ( Timiras et al., 2024 ). In modern times, the term Quality Assurance (QA), in HE connotations, refers to the EQA cum Internal Quality Methods (IQM) within a formal structure for external appraisal and improvement authentication. Thus, obligatory inward performance assessment. The inner self-evaluation is being authenticated by the first external review. Secondly, requirements for monitoring and follow-up for EQA recommendations. This study draws attention to organisational mismanagement in the investigated institution through the allocation of power and authority and its negative impact on universities, as determined by the study’s findings. The study ultimately makes an effort to offer suitable solutions for successful HE leadership.

Somalia faces a severe shortage of qualified (PhDs from accredited universities) higher education-trained lecturers equipped with basic research and development skills to serve in the hundred or more universities which can be exacerbated by the high volume of student intake, lack of research, teaching facilities, duplicated programmes and funding impacting the quality of education delivered and research. In addition, the impact of the 1991 Somali civil war resulted in a substantial loss of higher-education-trained manpower. That specifically hindered the Somali federal government and federal member states’ ability to reach their vision 2025 targets. Furthermore, the Somali Education Policy Papers do not clearly indicate the government’s commitment to enhancing and improving the HE sector. For that reason, Somalia is still in dire need of an HE-trained workforce and, as aforesaid, skilled research and teaching staff to meet the demands of the market and reality of the workplaces. The lack of a robust governmental commitment and a clearly defined policy framework to steer the development and management of university education has intensified the challenges faced in Somalia.

Somali higher education competitiveness to achieve their goals and successfully track their progress towards the set of goals the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (ME&HE) developed KPI metrics such as graduation rate, to measure the organizational performance at the institutional level and be used inside the organization to support the strategic process. The quantity and quality of the expert human resources, entrepreneur human resources, basic research, applied research, research and development, evaluation research, action research, knowledge creation, accumulation, sharing, utilization and internalization for industries, and social and national responsibilities. Effective leadership in higher education is loosely organised, such as when ownership and administration are kept apart and tasks are delegated in a way that makes it clear to other bodies who is responsible for what. The Ministry of Education’s role is loosely structured, and successful management in higher education is organised informally in Somalia. For example, tasks are assigned in a way that makes it not obvious to other bodies who is in charge of what, and ownership and administration are kept apart (ME & HE; Farah, 2022 ).

A governance structure with three major players—the Senate, the board of trustees, or the council-cum-academic board—is the prevailing form that is beginning to take shape ( Fielden, 2010 ). Therefore, this study aims to determine if the aforementioned three-tier system is present in the target institutions and to what degree it is effective across all HEIs in the nation, given the recent federal parliament’s passage of the Higher Education Act ( MoE & HE, 2025 ). Along with the absence of a cohesive and standardised curriculum and syllabus, the study tries to gauge if there are sufficiently trained university lecturers and if there is a clear discrepancy between their supply and demand in respective HEIs. The acquisition of sustainable advanced HE has become essential due to the goals of pursuing and exchanging knowledge in the restoration and reconstruction of expanding institutions and businesses in a distinct or unique nation that is trying to conform to the mainstream nation-state modality. The ability to create jobs in nations like Somalia, which are emerging from protracted internal conflicts, is obviously reliant on having qualified and experienced workers. The goal of the study is to support the effort to establish successful Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Somalia.

The lack of funding, chronic shortage of qualified instructors and HE programs are seen as being largely male-oriented. That gender disparity is chronic compared

to the other similar HEIs in Africa in general and East Africa in particular. That needs to be attended to by the education authority, ministry of Education and higher education of both federal government and federal member states. Also, the survey highlighted that the leadership’s knowledge about formal Quality Assurance and Accreditation (QAA) mechanism is compromised. That ascertains, though their KPIs awareness is moderate, the disparity between the years they existed and the lack of progress in terms of quality. Lack of university management commitment to the curriculum and syllabus exacerbated the matter. This must have a knock-on effect on the cooperation arrangements with other institutions, both national and international, thus the progress on the above matters. Almost all HEI’s contribution to academic research is pertinent in the shortage of institutions’ faculties or students’ peer-reviewed publications annually. The above will definitely have the employability rate of the graduates as the necessary skills on demand in the market are leveraged on them. Thus, KPI set out by Petrov and Kamenova-Timareva (2014) is pertinent here.

In general, there is no one perfect approach for the university governance structure ( Eurydice, 2008 ; Magalhães et al., 2013 ; Bennetot & Estermann, 2018 ). The approach of this work here is a cascade one in which university governance, diversity and marketization, organisational culture and its steering approaches perception and adaptation of management reform, then based on the aforesaid. And due to the blurred or non-distinctive roles of each group (the board, senate, student governance), the major HE issues that have been studied over the past decade ( Hartley, 2003 ). One of the central themes in this research is whether there have been any inroads the universities have made sense then ( Farah, 2022 ).

Since the Higher Education Commission Act was recently passed by parliament, the only eight HEIs have a university board of trustees, and based on the interviews conducted, they are all nonprofits with multiple roles and responsibilities, such as overseeing organizations’ performance accountability, fiscal integrity, and regulatory compliance; they also share a leadership role with the senate to advance their universities’ missions ( Chait et al . , 2004 ). In Somali context, unlike the neighbouring countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia, the only public Somali national university conforms to a structure where the chancellor is the titular leader, with no board of trustees, and the council comes under his command ( Muema, 2020 ). As for student governance, only four universities specified it on their websites. Nevertheless, it’s an essential body for the management of student affairs and overall university management supposed to address the challenges facing student roles in the university leadership ( Bosire et al., 2008 ). Regarding the council, based on the universities listed on their websites and the findings of their interviews, the majority of its members are also on the board of directors. This suggests that there is overlap, which weakens and compromises the council. As per the respondent’s answers, weaknesses in governance, such as overlapping roles between boards and councils, could be what transpired their fragile cooperation among themselves as well as with other international institutions, as the respondents’ answers on their institution’s cooperation arrangements with other institutions in different areas of KPIs were unsatisfactory.

The University Senate is the executive branch of the institution, and is answerable to the Council and the Board of Trustees. As the most senior academic body at the university, the Senate is in charge of academic governance, which includes standards and quality of education. It also plays a crucial strategic role in determining the course of research, teaching and learning at the university. In order to guarantee uniformity and best practices in the administration of the university’s awards and of its enrolled students, it is in charge of creating and supervising the development of academic policies and procedures as well as the regulatory framework that faculties and departments function within ( Teixeira & Middlehurst 2020 ). However, in the Somali context, the board of directors holds the ultimate power, as evidenced by the conducted interviews. Since there are only about 100 HEIs in a newly formed Somali FG emerging from a protracted civil war without a higher education act or implementing body in place to license a university that satisfies the requirements for a potential HEI that should open for business, this could once again be attributed to the institution’s physically and financially limited scale. Therefore, the sanest prerogative is only confined to the campuses of the institutions: internal management such as matriculations and fees levying, teacher and timetable arrangements, and ensuring the educational facilities are met for the corresponding modules.

The student governance in a university, public or private continues to face a major challenge to university administrators in many parts of the world including Somalia, and is feared by the respective administration. But, in Somali context it has been a mellowed modus operandi that students have no feasible role in the education system of the country. Parents also inadvertently assume it’s the leadership and managements’ role in governing the education institutions, and the HE environment is no exception. Thus, unlike the neighbouring countries ( Bosire et al., 2008 ), the student union plays almost no role in the management of student affairs and overall university management, and thus does not contribute to decision-making on matters affecting students. Their job encompasses co-ordination of University and College development plans, the efficient management of University resources, both human and material, and making proposals to the Council and the Senate on policies that have a University-wide application. The study concluded that challenges experienced by student leaders may impede effective discharge of their duties and may result in poor service delivery leading to incidents of riots. The study recommends that student leaders should be assisted to solve internal problems that may affect the effective discharge of their duties as a way of addressing unrest in public universities