#massification

In recent years, we have witnessed rapid growth of tertiary institutions in Africa and this expansion has led to the massification and privatization of higher education. “Massification has been defined as the mass adaptation of a phenomenon by the suppression of its distinguishing features”. Scott 1995 “used the term massification in the context of higher education HE systems to describe the rapid increase in student enrolment in the latter part of the twentieth century”. Lesotho has not been spared from this system and there has been growth of various higher institutions in the country mainly privately owned. Students have been enrolled in huge numbers in these institutions and this has resulted in large numbers of students and shrinking number of lecturers leading to disproportional ratios of lecturers to students. Students joining these institutions are faced with various challenges emanating from lack of resources, congestion, alienation and subsequent workload for academic staff. Demands and challenges of massification in higher education have also seen academics with added responsibilities of diversifying to improve the quality of delivery with scant resources. This paper explores the experiences and challenges faced by academics as well as students in higher institutions during this expansion era. Massification has been an issue of debate by both higher education researchers and policy makers globally hence the research intends to investigate how these policies have been addressed in other countries and how they can best be adopted to higher education in Lesotho. The study also attempts to learn about existing policies which are intended to revamp the quality of higher education, and or make considerable suggestions to higher education or how best quality can be maintained in the wake of massification. The study further hinges on the number of local higher learning centres institutions and the students enrolling in these establishments and how institutions ensure quality and proper assessment on learning, teaching and assessment.