External quality assurance aspects: Elements to consider during QA Strategy development

1. External quality assurance aspects: Elements to consider during QA Strategydevelopment Fisnik A. Gashi Officer for Evaluation and Monitoring Kosovo Accreditation Agency – KAA June 2014

2. Internal quality assurance is a duty of the HE institutions • External quality assurance fulfils a different need: at its best it combines both accountability for the reassurance of the public and an objective and developmental role for enhancing quality in institutions.

3. Higher education institutions are accountable for their performance to governments that finance education, but also to students, employers and other stakeholders. • These institutions are responsible for the quality of their academic and administrative services. • Integration of the strategic plan and quality assurance

4. a sound balance has to be maintained between internal and external quality assurance processes, which should mutually support each other and contribute both to the development of a quality culture within the higher education institutions and to the construction and operation of coherent and integrated national quality assurance systems.

5. What are the key areas to be considered from QA agencies when evaluating the quality of the institutions?

6. 1. Mission statement • A high quality institution is one that clearly states its mission (purpose) and is efficient in achieving it. • The institution‘s mission gives direction to its activities and provides a basis for the assessment and enhancement of the institution‘s effectiveness. • Aims and objectives known to all constituents of the institution; • How the institution achieves its mission, strategic planning to achieve the mission

7. 2. Planning and evaluation: • The institution undertakes planning and evaluation appropriate to its needs to accomplish and improve the achievement of its mission and purposes. • The institution has a system of governance that facilitates the accomplishment of its mission and purposes and supports institutional effectiveness and integrity.

8. 3.Governance and management: • autonomy of governance; organizational structure; • delegation of powers; institutional effectiveness; strategic plan; documentation; modernization of administration; • ToR for all governing bodies

9. 4. Human resources • Recruitment procedures; adequacy, qualification and competence of staff; awards, honors, membership, prizes, medals of learned societies of staff; retention; staff development; recognition and reward; staff workloads; welfare schemes;

10. 5. Learning resources and infrastructure: Land and buildings ; ownership; labs and lecture halls; library and information technology facilities; library spending per student; spending on computing facilities per student; health services, sports and physical education and halls of residence; campus maintenance;

11. 6.Finances: • Funding sources; ownership of resources; sustainability of funding; resource mobilization; resource allocation; accountability; liquidity; budget for academic and developmental plans; unit cost of education; strategic asset management; matching of receipts and expenditure.

12. 7. Students and services • admission procedures; student profile gender, age, staff/student ratio, drop out rate, progression to and further studies; student achievement; student satisfaction; personal and academic counseling; participation of staff in advising students; merit-based scholarships; other scholarships and fellowships; informal and formal

13. 7. Students and services • mechanisms for student feedback; student representation; student complaints and academic appeals; student mobility; recreational activities for students; • placement rate of graduates; employer satisfaction with graduates; graduate earning by field of study; alumni association and alumni profile;

14. 8. Curriculum • Learning outcomes conformity to goals and objectives; relevance to social needs; • integration of local context; initiation, review and redesign of programmes; • programme options; feedback mechanism on programme quality; interaction with employers

15. 9. Teaching-learning and evaluation: • teaching innovations; use of new media and methods; co-curricular activities; skill and competence development; projects and other avenues of learning; linkage with institutions, industries and commerce for teaching; linkage for field training; monitoring student progress; continuous internal assessment; use of external examiners; examination schedule, holding of examinations, evaluation, evaluation regulation, evaluation methods are informed to students

16. 10. Research • institutional support for research; staff active in research; research students by field of study; number of PhDs awarded per academic staff; number of research projects per academic staff; • research projects sponsored by industry; public sector research funding; ratios of research • expenditure and income; research assistantships and fellowships; staff supported by external research grants; existing research equipment; usefulness of research results for education; social merits of research; interdisciplinary research; student involvement in faculty research; research quality - citation of publications, impact factors, patents and licenses; benefits of consultancy to industry and the public; community-oriented activities;

17. 11. Quality assurance: • Internal quality assurance; institutional research on quality management; co-ordination between the academic and administrative functions; • Outcomes of external quality assessments; • Instruments to measure quality in teaching and learning • Internal guide for QA • Benchmarking-the process of learning by making comparisons, a way to improve

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