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. 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.

Members of the HEQC Board
Prof. Narend Baijnath	Member of the Executive Committee of the HEQC Vice Principal, Strategy Partnerships and Planning University of South Africa (UNISA)
Prof. Yunus Ballim	Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic) University of the Witwatersrand
Ms Judy Favish	Member of the Executive Committee of the HEQC Director, Institutional Planning University of Cape Town
Prof. Dhiro Gihwala	Member of the Executive Committee of the HEQC Dean of Science Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Ms Jenny Glennie	Director South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE)
Prof. Hu Hanrahan	Acting CEO: Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) Professor (Department of Engineering) University of the Witwatersrand
Ms Suraya Jawoodeen	Regional Secretary National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU) Western Cape
Mr Thamsanqa Ledwaba	Student University of Cape Town
Ms Kuselwa Marala	Director, Quality Assurance University of Fort Hare
Prof. Irene Moutlana	Vice Chancellor and Principal Vaal University of Technology
Ms Nombulelo Nxesi	Chief Executive Officer Education, Training and Development Practices Sector Education and Training Authority (ETDP SETA)
Prof. Chika Sehoole	Chief Director (Higher Education Planning and Management) Department of Higher Education & Training
Prof. Dave Sewry	Department of Information Systems Rhodes University
Prof. Rolf Stumpf	Independent Consultant
Dr Ngoato Takalo	Executive Director (Teaching and Learning) and Vice Principal North West University

The HEQC structure

The HEQC 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.

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.