PICQA Project

1. Motivation and involvement of internal and external stakeholders for Quality Assurance Nino Zhvania Zagreb, 2014 PICQA Project

2. PICQA - The project Promoting Internationalization and Comparability of Quality Assurance in Higher Education (PICQA) aimed at enhancing the quality of higher education in Armenia and Georgia by promoting internal and external quality assurance systems which were recognized acceptable both regionally and internationally.Project interventions: intensive training sessions, experience sharing, feedback loops. Project lifetime: October 15, 2010 – October 14, 2013 ASIIN Project focus for Georgia Preparing HEIs for internal quality management Preparing and promoting national systems for external quality assurance in higher education Project focus for Armenia Armenia YSMU GSPI VBSEUA SEUA Georgia ISU KULE RSU TSU ANQA NCEQE EUROPEAN Partners CIEP QANU AU TUM RU UKL

3. Involvement of Internal Stakeholders Administration; Students; Academics. Opportunities to become an integral part of QA through: surveys (applied to investigate students’ satisfaction with teaching, research, service administration, etc.); curriculum teams for academic staff (established to ensure the continuous process of curriculum development, enhancement of teaching and learning processes); process coordination by the administration (applied to increase effectiveness of curriculum teams, promotion of information-based decision making pertaining to teaching and learning processes, support in alignment with internal and external standards); program evaluation on regular basis (applied to determine effectiveness of each curriculum based on student achievement data analysis, graduate students’ performance on the job-market) ; communication of results to the administration and the curriculum teams. Teaching University Administration Research

4. Involvement of Internal Stakeholders Administration; Students; Academics. Challenges to become an integral part of QA through: surveys – though a popular tool to collect student data, return-rates are gradually decreasing; curriculum teams – though enthusiastic to develop program/curriculum content and reflect on program/curriculum appraisal data, reluctant to update relevant documentation and pursue administrative processes required for changes in the program/curriculum; process coordination by administration – at times not systematic, need for relevant human resources; program evaluation - urgency for the do-check-plan-act annual full cycle completion; communication of the results – encompasses a limited number of administrative and academic staff and involves one-way communication with no feedback loop; formally centralized structure of QA within universities. QA being largely driven by external accountability requirements. Teaching University Administration Research

5. Involvement of Internal Stakeholders Administration; Students; Academics. Remedial actions: How to improve their involvement in QA? surveys – sharing findings with students , ensuring transparency through reporting to the public, demonstrating relevant institutional/curriculum level changes; curriculum teams – increasing administrative support (e.g. curriculum assistants) to help university academic staff align their documentations with the internal and external standards; process coordination by administration – well defined expectations for each curriculum team meetings, clearly distributed responsibilities, set deadlines; program evaluation – extending the do-check-plan- act cycle so that the process gives a reasonable time span for evaluation as well as planning a relevant intervention and its implementation; communication – introducing a ‘feedback loop’ that delivers curriculum/program appraisal results to the academic staff and faculty administration and communicates their strategic response to the university administration and students; formally centralized structure of QA within universities – delegation of responsibilities among and within curriculum teams; QA being largely driven by external accountability requirements – rendering universities predominantly oriented on internal accountability and their competiveness with other universities (e.g. admissions trend analysis, upgrading services for double degree/joint degree programs, benchmarking ) Teaching University Administration Research

6. Involvement of Internal Stakeholders Administration; Students; Academics. Still a challenge: How to involve research (institutions) in QA? benchmarking the research output (databases, IF, number of publications, international cooperation, grants, etc.,); benchmarking teaching resources (intensity of lab courses, new/newest journals, research articles); involvement of PhD students in supervision on master and bachelor level of studies; researchers as instructors on all levels; development of the “research curriculum” i.e. gradation of research skills bachelor master PhD, development of clear criteria and rubrics for thesis evaluation Teaching University Administration Research

7. Involvement of External Stakeholders . Employers Opportunities to involve employers in QA cooperation in delivering university curriculum (internship, hands-on practice, background for thesis development); acting professionals as instructors for university courses; industry surveys for curriculum outcomes, assessment of university graduates on the jobs; Challenges: reluctance to accomodate many students – internship openings are often limited; time ‘pressure’ – acting professionals are not often available to contribute to university curriculum and service development; response rate for industry surveys are extremely low; Teaching University Employers Employers Administration Research Employers

8. Involvement of External Stakeholders . Employers Remedial actions: How to improve their involvement in QA? cooperation in delivering university curriculum – developing a selection policy for internship opportunities and offering it as a reward for achievement; rigorous internship schedule for students with well-defined assessment criteria and concept of supervision; thesis reviews/ participation in thesis defense by the employers; surveys – graduates on their professional skills and match between their pre-service preparation; industry on required competences for their jobs; “guest speakers” – professional inbuilt cases by industry representatives and inbuilt in academic courses; Teaching University Employers Employers Administration Research Employers

9. Ilia State University ILIA STATE UNIVERSITY How we do it Quality • Industry: • Industry surveys • Industry participation in program delivery • Job-market research • Research • Output measurement • Reward for achievement • Teaching and research integration • Students: • Student surveys • Student achievements • Graduates: • Following career development • Program and service assessment Students Industry Graduates Research Data-driven decision making Teamwork for improvement

10. Ilia State University ILIA STATE UNIVERSITY How we do it Job-fairs • Industry: • HR Guild of Professionals (the largest professional association of industry representatives in Georgia) • Research • Thomson Reuters • EBSCO • SCOPUS • ULRIH • ERIH Quality • Students: • ARGUS student survey tool (access to the entire student population) • ARGUS student assessment data • Graduates: • QA research team; • Longitudinal data collection Students Industry Graduates Research Award Accountability Transparency

11. Thank You!