Friday 8 August 2014

ANQ 2014 - Impact of AUN-QA Assessments on the Quality of Educational Programmes

The paper titled "The Impact of ASEAN University Network-Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) Assessments on the Quality of Educational Programmes" was presented by Mr. Johnson Ong Chee Bin, AUN-QA Expert (Singapore) at the ANQ 2014 Congress held in Singapore from 5 to 8 August 2014.





The following is the abstract of the paper:

The creation of the AUN-QA was initiated in 1998 as a network of Chief Quality Officers (CQOs) appointed by the AUN member universities as the focal point for coordinating activities to realise the mission of harmonising educational standards and to seek continuous improvement of academic quality of universities in ASEAN. Since then, AUN-QA has been actively promoting, developing, and implementing quality assurance practices based on an empirical approach where quality assurance practices are shared, tested, evaluated, and improved.

AUN-QA assessment was inaugurated in December 2007. From 2007 to 2012, 16 AUN-QA assessments covering four countries, seven universities and 37 programmes were carried out. The 37 programmes were assessed by AUN-QA assessors based on the 15 criteria of the AUN-QA Model at the programme level.

To assess the impact of AUN-QA assessments on the quality of educational programmes, an analysis of the results was made using medians and categories of criterion rated based on the AUN-QA Rating Scale. Based on the medians of the AUN-QA criterion rated at the programme level, the number of criteria rated “Better than Adequate” has increased from 1 in 2007 to 13 out of 15 in 2012. This demonstrates that the quality of the assessed educational programmes at the participating universities has improved over the last six years. 

Recommendations to further improve the quality of the educational programme in the 15 criteria are made.

Tuesday 5 August 2014

AUN-ADB Phase 3 Project for CLM Countries - 1st QA Training Workshop in Cambodia

AUN-ADB Phase 3 of QA training to universities in CLM countries will be held over 3 years from 2014 to 2016. The 1st training workshop will be held in 2014 and it will involve participants that had participated in phases 1 and 2 of QA training. The 2nd and 3rd training workshops will be held in 2015 and 2016 respectively. The workshops aim to attract new applicants from CLM universities.

The 1st QA training workshop for Cambodia was held from 28 - 31 July 2014 and facilitated by Mr. Johnson Ong Chee Bin (AUN-QA Expert) and Dr Wyona Patalinghug (DLSU). Twenty-four participants from the following institutions attended the 1st QA training workshop:

  • Royal University of Laws and Economics
  • Royal University of Phnom Penh
  • Cambodian University for Specialties
  • National University of Management
  • Svay Rieng University
  • Accreditation Committee of Cambodia
  • Department of Higher Education

The 1st QA training workshop aims to achieve the following learning outcomes:

  • Apply the PDCA approach to curriculum design and development
  • Identify the stakeholders’ needs for curriculum development
  • Apply constructive alignment of learning outcomes, teaching and learning strategies and student assessment
  • Apply Bloom’s taxonomy in learning outcomes
  • Apply appropriate teaching and learning strategies for effective learning
  • Design student assessment and rubrics
  • Adapt and translate the Bloom’s taxonomy into local language for implementation

The 1st workshop focuses on enhancing the QA in curriculum design and development process emphasizing on constructive alignment of learning outcomes, teaching and learning strategy and student assessment. It hopes to strengthen the underlying foundations of QA in higher education of CLM countries.