The HEQC audit process has always recognized the need for and the role of panel chairs; and has increasingly come to understand the important part to be played by the audit report writer. Chair and report writer workshops are a key element in ensuring that these people have the system-specific skills, knowledge and understanding needed.

The workshop which took place recently at the Birchwood Hotel near Johannesburg International Airport was divided into two sections. The first, from the late afternoon of Sunday 10 April to the following mid-day, focused particularly on issues relevant to panel chairs. The second part of the workshop, of approximately the same length and starting on the second afternoon, went in more depth into matters relating to the compilation of the audit report. While some of the issues covered could be regarded as bureaucratic (and are not unimportant: the sequencing of the portfolio meeting, the site visit and the subsequent writing of the report, for example), the most important discussions were around issues such as the nature and purpose of the audit report, and the process of identifying and drawing together evidence relating to the HEI's own self-evaluation.

All of the 25 participants were people with considerable experience of the higher education sector, and of the HEQC system. Particularly striking in this workshop was the extent to which there is now a considerable number of "voices" of people who have participated in HEQC audits in the last two years. This brings to the discussion a great degree of reality, and provides the opportunity for in-depth discussion and shared learning.