for participants to acquire an understanding of the concepts of quality assurance and accreditation in higher education and their potential value and limitations, and to relate these to their own circumstances and experience at Jazan.
Session 1 The nature of quality and standards in higher education the history of quality assurance in higher education Session 2 the purposes of quality assurance and accreditation different types of quality assurance and accreditation (including rankings) Session 3 quality assurance – its strengths and weaknesses accreditation – its strengths and weaknesses the stage of development at Jazan University
What is quality? What is quality in higher education? What are standards? What are academic standards?
The characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs A product or service free of deficiencies Conformance to requirements The efficient production of the quality that the market expects Degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements Fitness for use Products and services that meet or exceed customers' expectations The result of care Number of defects per million opportunities. Uniformity around a target value The loss a product imposes on society after it is shipped Value to some person
‘academic quality is a way of describing the effectiveness of everything that is done or provided (the ‘learning opportunities’) to ensure that students have the best possible opportunity to meet the stated outcomes of their programmes and the academic standards of the awards they are seeking’ Is this good enough?
a proxy for requirements, usually of students in their final assessment principles overarching the structure and function of the academic programme of studies specifically-required levels of learning (how hard a programme or qualification is)
‘predetermined and explicit levels of achievement which must be reached for a student to be granted a qualification’
UK external examiners: 1880s, voluntary institutional appointments to confirm comparability of university standards US accreditation: early 20th Century, exclusive voluntary regional organisations owned by universities Specialist subject/professional qualification accreditation: throughout 20th Century European developments: 1960s onward Late 20th Century: General worldwide move toward QA and accreditation
Voluntary collective institutional self- regulation (eg US regional accreditation, UK HEQC/QAA) Voluntary professional/specialist accreditation (eg ABET, EQUIS, AACSB) Government-imposed requirement (most other accreditation agencies)
International Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) European Association of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (ENQA) Asia Pacific Quality Network (APQN) The Arab Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ANQAHE)