Voices from the student frontlines: quality management realities and policy–practice gaps in Ethiopian public higher education: a qualitative thematic analysis

Purpose This study aims to investigate lived realities of quality management practices and policy–practice gaps in Ethiopian public higher education, centering student council members’ perspectives to examine how institutional quality frameworks translate into practice and align with national and global quality assurance frameworks. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a qualitative thematic analysis design, the study used three semistructured focus group discussions with 21 purposively selected student council members across three public research universities. Findings were triangulated by systematically analyzing national policies, legislative proclamations, institutional manuals and international quality-related documents. Findings Analysis revealed six interrelated themes: declining instructor commitment, inadequate resources, weak monitoring, unprofessional conduct, diminished student well-being and superficial compliance. Findings indicate that quality management is largely compliance-driven and weakly implemented, prioritizing numerical outputs over pedagogical effectiveness. This “output-driven” focus fosters a decoupling of policy from reality, where symbolic compliance masks systemic erosion. Structural barriers, including political interference and departmental leadership gaps, further widen the divide between formal mandates and student-encountered realities. Research limitations/implications Focusing on selected public universities and student perspectives, it provides empirical evidence of systemic quality challenges and policy–practice decoupling. Practical implications Evidence-based actions to bridge policy−practice gaps through process-oriented evaluations, leadership accountability, integrated student feedback, resource enforcement and enhanced pedagogical monitoring. Social implications Improved quality management supports equity, inclusion and better graduate outcomes for disadvantaged students. Originality/value This study foregrounds student voices, offering a rare bottom-up critique of Global South quality management while advancing neo-institutional theory by exposing how symbolic institutionalization and structural contradictions widen policy−practice gaps.