Although several studies have examined how quality teaching and learning is defined and operationalised in the global North, there is a paucity of such studies in developing country contexts. Using Zimbabwe as a case study, the research applies Sen's idea of deliberative democracy to a multi-stakeholder evaluation of policy formulation and practices in university teaching and learning. The study reveals a disjuncture between policy and practice, which has implications for the learning processes and valued outcomes of higher education. The paper proposes the broadening of the current technical-rational approaches to quality, to incorporate other stakeholder perspectives in informing a contextually relevant understanding of quality and its practices. Thus, beyond skills and knowledge acquisition, teaching and learning would foster other valued capabilities as quality learning outcomes.