The Council on Higher Education (CHE) has one permanent committee, the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC). The HEQC has executive responsibility for quality promotion and quality assurance in higher education. It is led by an Executive Director, with a Deputy Director responsible for coordinating the work of the HEQC with that of the higher education institutions and for relations with stakeholders in general.

The Higher Education Act of 1997 (reference: Higher Education Act 101 of 1997) states that the functions of the HEQC are to:

• promote quality in higher education
• audit the quality assurance mechanisms of higher education institutions
• accredit programmes of higher education

To the above three mandated areas, the Board of the HEQC added quality-related capacity development.

The HEQC has four directorates:

• Institutional Audits Directorate - responsible for conducting audits of public and private higher education institutions' systems for ensuring good quality of provision in the three core functions of teaching and learning, research and community engagement.
• National Reviews Directorate - responsible for re-accrediting existing programmes in specific disciplines and/or qualification areas.
• Programme Accreditation Directorate - responsible for accrediting the learning programmes of public and private higher education institutions.
• Quality Promotion and Capacity Development Directorate - responsible for implementing the HEQC's quality promotion and capacity development programme which disseminates information and knowledge about quality assurance, and prepares individuals and institutions to participate in implementing the HEQC's quality assurance system.