2nd AUN-QA Training for Non-Members

The “AUN-QA Training Course for Accomplishing Programme Assessment” was organised for Non-AUN members by AUN Secretariat. The 4-day workshop was held from 16 – 19 April 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The 4-day course aims to introduce the AUN-QA system and enhance quality assurance practices. It is held for professionals who are in charge of quality assurance at programme and/or institutional level from universities in ASEAN.

The content of the workshop encompasses:

• Introduction of quality assurance in higher education

• AUN quality assessment process

• Self-assessment at programme level

• Study visit to Chulalongkorn University

The workshop was facilitated by Mr. Johnson Ong together with facilitators from the National University of Singapore. The workshop was attended by 26 participants from Sultan Aharif Ali Islamic University, Institut Teknologi Brunei, Binus University, Bogor Agricultural University, Instit Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Universitas Airlangga, Universitas Indonesia, Hasanuddin University, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Naresuan University, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, Kasetsart University, KhonKhaen University, Hue University, International University, Ho Chi Minh City,  and Universiti Brunei Darussalam.

About Johnson Ong Chee Bin (汪智民)

Johnson has more than 40 years of operational, quality and human resource management experiences in manufacturing, telecommunications, postal services, logistics, training and education, and has held key management and leadership positions in his career. His expertise has evolved from specialising in quality of product and service to the quality of life. 

Johnson is the Founder and Chief Happiness Coach of Living Better. His vision of a Happier World and years of research led to the conceptualisation of The Happiness DNA which he hopes to bring happiness to life, family, work and community. 

In the education arena, Johnson is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Education Quality International. He is an AUN-QA Expert appointed by the Secretary-General of the Office of Higher Education Commission and the Chairman of the AUN Board of Trustees since 2012. He was a founding member of the AUN-QA Council (February 2013 to March 2015) and the AUN-QA Technical Team (April 2015 to March 2022). He was conferred the AUN-QA "Green Jacket" in March 2018 for his contributions in AUN-QA Network. Johnson is actively involved in the AUN-QA assessment and training of Chief Quality Officers (CQOs) and AUN-QA assessors at the AUN-QA Network. He is instrumental in reviewing and writing the “Guide to AUN-QA Assessment at Institution Level” Version 2,  the “Guide to AUN-QA Assessment at Programme Level” Version 2 and Version 3, and the “Guidelines for AUN Quality Assessment and Assessors”. He is the course developer and facilitator for AUN-QA Training Workshops, and CLM Countries Training Workshops. He was also appointed as a QA expert in the ASEAN-QA Project Phase I and II jointly organised by AUN, AQAN, DAAD, DIES, ENQA, HRK, SEAMEO-RIHED and Universitat Potsdam; and was a member of the QA expert group in the EU-SHARE project. He was an appointed trainer at the 2nd East African Quality Assurance Forum 2012 organised by IUCEA, HRK and DAAD.

Johnson has provided QA training, consulting and assessment to many universities in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam.

In his last appointment, Johnson was the Associate Director with the Office of Quality Management, National University of Singapore. He provided consultancy and training in service excellence and quality management system. He has designed, developed and facilitated more than 50 workshops and trained more than 1,000 NUS staff members in Balanced Scorecard, Business Process Re-engineering and Improvement, Innovation, Service Excellence, ISO 9001 and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

In his previous employment, Johnson has successfully accredited Nanyang Polytechnic-School of Business, Singapore Post Pte Ltd, DataPost Pte Ltd, Air Express International (S) Pte Ltd, AEI Ocean Service Pte Ltd, AEI Warehousing & Distribution Pte Ltd, Hewlett Packard Asia Pacific Parts Centre and AEI-Delphi Distribution Centre in ISO 9001/9002 certification.

Johnson was a member (2007 – 2012) of the Quality Management Technical Committee (QMTC) administered by Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board (SPRING) Singapore and the role of the QMTC is to develop, adopt and promote relevant management systems standards for the purpose of helping Singapore companies improve their management practices through standardisation. QMTC approves and publishes many popular quality standards in Singapore including ISO 9001, ISO 9004 and ISO 19011.

Johnson was an Adjunct Lecturer with the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF) Institute of Higher Learning and Murdoch University. He is an Associate Trainer with the Singapore Quality Institute, and ASK Training Pte Ltd.

Johnson holds a Master's Degree in Business Administration from the University of Leicester and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Economics and Management Studies from the University of London. He also holds a Specialist Diploma in Applied Learning and Teaching (SDALT) from Republic Polytechnic and an Advanced Certificate in Training and Assessment (ACTA) from the Institute for Adult Learning. He is a certified practitioner in neuro-linguistics programming (NLP), and a certified facilitator for extended DISC profiling and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People programme. Johnson has been certified as an Industry Trainer, ISO 9001 auditor, consultant and assessor in the Singapore Quality Class (an equivalent to the Malcom Baldrige Excellence Framework).

Johnson is an author and prolific writer (see Resources). Many of his works are published in Productivity Digest, SQI Newsletter, Today’s Manager, Human Capital and Human Capital Plus. 

Self-Assessment Report (SAR) Development Training

The PDCA Approach to SAR Development workshop was customised for Universitas Indonesia (UI) with the objective of preparing the teaching staff as facilitators in developing Self Assessment Report (SAR) for their programmes.

At the end of the workshop, participants learn to: 

• Apply the PDCA approach to SAR development; Understand the AUN QA criteria at programme level;
• Understand the requirements of SAR;
• Apply the technique for writing SAR; and
• Appreciate the AUN QA assessment process

The 2-day workshop was held at UI on 15 & 16 Nov 2010 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

UN Resolution on Happiness

2 April was a special day where world leaders gathered to deliberate the resolution on happiness - Resolution 65/309 Happiness: towards a holistic approach to development.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York Monday said “Gross National Product has long been the yardstick by which economies and politicians have been measured. Yet it fails to take into account the social and environmental costs of so-called progress. We need a new economic paradigm that recognizes the parity between the three pillars of sustainable development. Social, economic and environmental well-being are indivisible. Together they define gross global happiness".

Bhutan introduced the idea of “Gross National Happiness” in the early 1970s and in 2011 the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution noting that using a purely financial indicator “does not adequately reflect the happiness and well-being of people in a country.”
A copy of the World Happiness Report can be obtained at  http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/sitefiles/file/Sachs%20Writing/2012/World%20Happiness%20Report.pdf

Reference source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/03/10995853-be-happy-not-just-rich-says-un-chief-ban-ki-moon

1st AUN-QA Training for Non-Members

The “AUN-QA Training Course for Accomplishing Programme Assessment” was organised for Non-AUN members by AUN Secretariat. The 4-day workshop was held from 3 – 6 October 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The 4-day course aims to introduce the AUN-QA system and enhance quality assurance practices. It is held for professionals who are in charge of quality assurance at programme and/or institutional level from universities in ASEAN.

The content of the workshop encompasses:

• Introduction of quality assurance in higher education

• AUN quality assessment process

• Self-assessment at programme level

• Study visit to Chulalongkorn University

The workshop was facilitated by A/Prof Tan Kay Chuan, Mr. Johnson Ong and Mr. Zhou Qi from the Office of Quality Management, National University of Singapore. The workshop was attended by 22 participants from Universitas Indonesia, Bogor Agricultural University, Diponegoro University, Burapha University, Kasetsart University, Khon Kaen University, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Naresuan University, Thammasat University, and Can Tho University. 

ASEAN-QA Project Part 1 and 2

The ASEAN-QA Training Workshop on Quality Assurance is a three-part training programme. Part 1 was jointly hosted by ASEAN University Network (AUN) and Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA), from 17 – 21 October 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand. Part II was hosted by University of Potsdam from 19 - 23 March 2012 in Berlin, Germany.

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the German Rectors´ Conference (HRK), and the University of Potsdam together with partners from Southeast Asia and Europe: ASEAN Quality Assurance Network (AQAN), ASEAN University Network (AUN), European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), and the Regional Centre for Higher Education and Development (SEAMEO-RIHED) initiated the ASEAN-QA project which aims at developing capacity in the field of quality assurance (QA) in the ASEAN region. A multi-part training course has been offered to two main target groups: university staff dealing with internal QA matters, and agency staff being employed in the external QA sector.  The overall objectives of the ASEAN-QA project are to: 

• Promote exchanges of QA experiences between European and Southeast Asian experts;
• Contribute to harmonisation of QA policies in the region; and
• Provide hands-on training to relevant stakeholders: university staff, QA officers, accreditation agency representatives, and peers.

The 5-day training workshop for each part consists of two tracks: Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) and an External Quality Assurance (EQA). The IQA track aims to prepare participants how to prepare a self-assessment report for a study programme while the EQA track aims to prepare participants how to conduct an external assessment of a study programme. The IQA track was facilitated by Mr Johnson Ong together with other AUN and European trainers.
  

Enhancing Quality Assurance Workshop for CLMV Countries in Myanmar

The training workshop on “Enhancing Quality Assurance” for CLMV countries in Myanmar was hosted by Myanmar Maritime University, Yangon, Myanmar from 22 – 25 August 2011. The 4-day workshop titled “Training on Enhancing Quality Assurance in CLMV Countries” was held from 22 – 25 Aug 2011 with the following objectives:

§  Develop and Strengthen QA system in CLMV countries through the use of the AUN-QA Guidelines and the AUN-QA Manual.

§  Build up QA personnel team in CLMV countries.

§  Improve and upgrade quality of education management in CLMV countries.

§  Assist and sustain AUN-QA network.

The workshop was facilitated by A/Prof Tan Kay Chuan, and Mr Johnson Ong from the Office of Quality Management, National University of Singapore. The workshop was attended by 25 participants from University of Yangon, Yangon Institute of Economics, Myanmar Maritime University, Myanmar Mercantile Marine College and Department of Marine Administration; and seven observers from the Quality Management System Office from the Myanmar Maritime University and civil aviation training authority in Myanmar.

The workshop was graced by Mr Win Shein, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Transport at the opening ceremony on 22 Aug 2011. The event was covered and reported in the local press and media.

The workshop covered a brief development of AUN-QA, AUN-QA quality assurance models, and the quality assessment process. Hands-on exercises requiring participants to conduct a desktop assessment at programme level and draft a quality assurance plan were carried out during the workshop.