How to discover and to assure my quality????

Workshop in the framework of the 2nd KNUST SummerschoolAugust 20 -24, 2012

Ton VroeijenstijnQuality ConsultantsThe Netherlands

Expected learning outcomes

After the training session, it is expected that you will be able:

to describe the concepts of “quality” and “quality assurance” in Higher Education

to participate in the on-going discussion about quality

Contribute to the implementation of a quality assurance system in your university/faculty

to discover the quality of your university/faculty by means of a self assessment

to prepare your programmes for an external assessment / accreditation.

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Program Tuesday, 21 August 2012

Introduction into quality and quality assurance (09.30 -12.00 a.m)

Without QA, no university will survive (Why quality assurance is needed)

Are we speaking the same language?

Quality assurance instruments (13.00-16.30)

How to assure our quality?

An X-ray of your university

Wednesday 22 August 2012

How to discover the quality of our programmes? The instrument of Self assessment (09.00-10.00)

A Road map to Quality’ Is the IUCEA handbook a valuable instrument for KNUST?

Open questions and discussion (11.30-12.00)

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1Without quality assurance, no university

will survive

Why Quality assurance is needed

More students, less money

Rise of private institutions

Growing competition

Changing expectations labour market

Globalisation

Tax payer want value for money

“ Consumer” protection

QA in Industry

TQM-Deming cycle

ISO

EFQM

The EFQM model

Quality Assurance in HE Assurance of quality in higher education is a

process of establishing stakeholder confidence that provision (input, process and outcomes) fulfils expectations or measures up to threshold minimum requirements. (Harvey, 2004, Analytic Quality Glossary)

Systematic, structured and continuous attention to quality in terms of maintaining and improving quality. ( IUCEA handbook A Roadmap to quality)

Quality assurance system in HE

Important elements of the QA system HE

Self assessment

External peer review

(Public) report

Formal decision (accreditation)

Follow up

You are a member of the QA-committee. It is your first meeting and the basic aim of the meeting is to come to a mutual understanding of the concept “quality”

  Describe how you define quality

Give the 5 most important criteria for the quality of an Institutions for HE

Give the 5 most important criteria for the quality of a curriculum

Individual assignment (10 minutes)

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2 “Do we speak the same language?”

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Basic questions concerning quality

What is quality?

Who are the players in the quality game?

Can quality be measured? (Criteria and standards)

Who set the standards?

how do we know the quality?

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HIGHER EDUCATIONPlayers in the quality field

students

staff

Government / parliament

employers/professional bodies

society at large

international forum

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DIFFERENT VIEWS ON QUALITY Quality is the satisfaction of the client

Quality as excellence

Quality as additional value

Quality as value for money

Quality as fitness for purpose

Quality as meeting threshold standards

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QualityAbsolute Quality does not exist

There is no fixed definition of Quality

View on Quality is changing in time

But we must find a workable concept, shared by all

Stakeholders and Quality

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Quality is •achieving our goals and aims in an efficient and effective way (fitness for purpose), •assuming that the goals and aims reflect the requirements/expectations of all our stakeholders in an adequate way (fitness of purpose).

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QualityIs context based

But there is always a threshold quality

University of the

Amazonas

University Rio de Janeiro

International standards

National standards

Berkeley

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Criteria & standards Criterion:

the specification of elements against which a

judgment is made

a specific aspect, essential for the quality

Standard: the level that a criterion must reach.

Normally: adequate or satisfactory. Sometimes

quantifiable

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Criteria & standards Who is setting standards?

Who is checking the standards?

Because there is no absolute quality, there are no

absolute standards; standards are a matter of

negotiation.

Criteria: valid in all circumstances

Standards: context bound: Mc Donald and 3 stars

restaurant

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Can Quality be measured?Tendency of governments to quantify quality

aspects

Use of performance indicators?

But….performance indicators does not tell us all

about the quality

“Performance indicators may harm the quality”

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% alcohol

Acidity

tannin

sediment

performanceindicators

smelltaste

expert team

Performance indicators and quality assessment

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Part 3How to discover our quality??

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Key-questions

Do we do the right things?

Do we do the right things in the right way?

Do we have a thorough command of the process to realize actually what we want?

Do we really achieve what we want to achieve?

Instruments to discover the quality

Analysis of our QA system

Analysis at institutional level

Analysis at program level

Towards an IQA system

Internal Quality Assurance is:

Systematic, structured and continuous attention to quality in terms of maintaining and improving quality. IUCEA handbook A Roadmap to quality)

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Implementation IQA-system

there is no one fit for all

IQA system is tailor made, but ….

Requirements set by out side agencies

Code of good practice ENQA, INQAAHE, UNESCO

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CRITERIA FOR IQA(enqa)

   

1 Policy and procedures for QA

2 Monitoring system

3 Periodic review of the core activities

4 Quality assurance of the student assessment

5 Quality assurance of staff

6 Quality assurance of facilities

7 Quality assurance of the student support

8 Self assessment

9 Internal audit

10 Information systems

11 Public information

12 A Quality handbook

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Basic conditions for IQA

As simple as possible and not bureaucratic

Balance between centralized and decentralized approach

Supported by management

Effective instruments

Tuned to national and international developments

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Problems with the introduction of IQALack of quality awareness

Resistance against innovations

Resistance of staff because they feel threatened

Lack of knowledge about QA. Training is needed.

resistance because it is time consuming and money consuming (“We have other things to do”).

It is difficult to define what quality is; the QA indicators are not always clear;

The purpose and the added value are not always clear

Lack of clear communication between the staff and the institutions management

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To overcome the problems it is important to:

Understand clearly what Quality Assurance means;

Know the available instruments;

Know about the requirements set for an IQA system

Design the system very clearly and formulate the strategy to introduce it

Tune the system to external developments.

Individual assignment 2 (10 minutes)

You are still a member of the QA-committee. It is your 2nd meeting and the basic aim of the meeting is to analyse what is already done for Quality Assurance and to discuss the possibility foir introducing the IQA model.

Questions:

What elements are already in place in the university?

Is the model useful in your situation to analyse your activities concerning quality assurance?

Which activities belongs to the responsibility of the central management? Which one to the responsibilities of the faculty? What are joint activities?

An institutional self assessment

Provide us information about the performance of the institution

Offer the possibility to define clearly our profile

Input for strategic planning

How to discover the quality of our programs??

A program is defined as a coherent set of courses leading to a certain degree (bachelor or master).

We may call the program also a curriculum

It is not only about the content, but also about the process and the boundary conditions

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CONDITIONS FOR SELF ANALYSIS A self assessment:

should never be felt as threatening

aims at improvement and enhancement

need a broad support; Everybody has to be involved.

Need support of the management

demands a good organisation.

is an analysis supported by the whole faculty

Not everyone has to agree with all the points in the self-assessment report.

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Look at the given criteria and explanation

Describe the situation

Give a critical analysis

Are you satisfied with the situation

If not what you are you planning to do?

Look for evidence that you are meeting the criteria

Give the weak and strong points

The guide for analysis

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 Goals and objectives; expected learning outcomes x2 Programme content x3 Programme specification x4 Programme organisation x5 Didactic concept/teaching/learning strategy x6 Student assessment x7 Staff quality x8 Quality of the support staff x9 Student profile x10 Student advice/support

Strengths and weaknesses analysis

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The 7-point scale read as follows

1= absolutely inadequate; immediate improvements must be made

2= inadequate, improvements necessary

3= inadequate, but minor improvements will make it adequate

4= adequate as expected

5= better than adequate

6= example of good practice

7= excellent

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The follow-up of the self-assessmentIn many cases followed by accreditation

If not: organize an inter-collegial assessment

Outcomes of the SWOT-analysis is used for a quality plan

Each year check of the quality plan

The IUCEA handbook

The quality project East Africa

June 2006 workshop “Supporting a regional QA initiative” organised by IUCEA an DAAD

Developing handbook

Training QA officers

2008 -2009: 23 universities SA+External

2009-2010: second cohort

2011: external evaluation of the project

2012-2013 3rd cohort

Participants in the quality project East Africa

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Why an IUCEA quality handbook was seen as needed

Development in the region of

a shared idea of quality

harmonized internal quality assurance systems

a shared idea about criteria and standards

shared ideas about the accreditation framework

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A Road Map to quality Initiative of the IUCEA 2006, supported by DAAD and HRK of Germany

Based

on documents and experiences of the national regulatory bodies in East Africa

Based on similar developments in South-East Asia, Central America and Europe

Editorial board with members of the standing committee of the IUCEA

Discussion of drafts at the different workshops

5th draft used by the 1st cohort of universities

Revised draft (4 volumes ) by 2nd cohort

Endorsed by IUCEA and official publication June 2009 (www.iucea.org)

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Contents of the handbook Volume 1

Guidelines for Self- assessment at program level aims at the faculty/department offering an instrument to learn more about the quality of the programs at offer by means of an effective self assessment at program level

Volume 2:

Guidelines for external assessmentexplains the procedures and processes for an external assessment at program level. The specific target group is the external expert team, but also the faculty/department to be assessed.

Volume 3:

Guidelines for Self-assessment at institutional level aims especially at the central management of an institution and offers an instrument to discover more about the quality of the institution

Volume 4:

The implementation of a Quality Assurance system aims at all level of an institution, but is especially useful for the Quality Assurance coordinators for the development and installation of an Internal Quality Assurance system

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How to use the handbook

1. The handbook is not forcing an institution to apply fixed standards and ideas

2. It is voluntary, but…….. members of IUCA should play the rules of the game

3. For private institutions: it will help to be in line with international developments

4. The handbook offers a toolkit for quality assurance and quality improvement.

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1.Central management can use the handbook to discuss and implement a quality policy

2.The Quality-officer can use the handbook to promote quality assurance in the institution and to facilitate the quality process in the university. The handbook contains basic materials for training sessions.

3.Faculty deans can use the instrument for self assessment at program level and provide staff and students with basic background information

4.Staff and students can use the handbook for better understanding of the need of quality assurance and also for a better understanding of the instruments.

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Assignment for the case study

You are a member of a committee, installed by the Senate, to develop ideas about the implementation of Quality assurance in your institution. You are invited to write a report for the Senate with a strategic plan.

The Senate made clear you must make an analysis of the current situation and see what should be done to get a robust QA-system

Furthermore, the Senate like to organise in 2013 some program evaluations and in 2014 an institutional self evaluation.