Developing External Quality Assurance WHERE ARE YOU, SLOVENIA?

1
Developing External Quality AssuranceWHERE ARE
YOU, SLOVENIA?

• Franci Cuš
• Marinka Drobnic Košorok

2
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF EXTERNAL QA SYSTEMS ?

• To improve and enhance the education available to
  students
• To assist HEI in managing and enhancing their
  quality
• To safeguard the interest of society in quality
  of HE
• To safeguard national academic standards
  (accreditation of programmes/institutions)
• To enable HEI to demonstrate their quality
  (national and international level)
• To promote development of processes through which
  HEI can demonstrate their accountability (to
  students, society, investors)

3
LEVELS OF QA

• InternalQA
• externalQA
• QA of QA institutions

4
INTERNAL QA IN HE

• ESG
• Policy and procedures
• Approval, monitoring and periodic review of
  programmes and awards
• Assessment of students
• QA of teaching staff
• Learning resources and student support
• Information system
• Public information

5
INTERNAL QA IN HE IN SLOVENIA

• The policy of QA declared in Law of HE, Statutes
  and institutions internal regulations
• Study programmes (learning outcomes, programme
  content, modes of delivery, learning resources,
  approval procedure)
• Student surveys questionnaires
• Habilitation procedure
• Annual self-evaluation (monitoring of students
  achievements, periodic reviews of the programmes,
  feedback from stakeholders)
• Summary of the SER published by QACS

6
INTERNAL QA IN HE

• ESG
• Policy and procedures
• Approval, monitoring and periodic review of
  programmes and awards
• Assessment of students
• QA of teaching staff
• Learning resources and student support
• Information system
• Public information

• SLOVENIJA
• Law of HE, Statute, QA??
• Accreditation, self evaluation, annual report
• Statute, internal regulations
• Habilitation procedure
• Resources-always too short
• IT slowly improving
• PI slowly improving

7
EXTERNAL QA IN HE

• ESG
• Effectiveness of the internal QA procedures
• External QA processes determined and published
• criteria for decision should be published
• Processes fit for purpose
• Reporting
• Follow-up procedures
• Periodic reviews
• System-wide analysis

8
EXTERNAL QA IN HE IN SLOVENIA

• The outcomes of self-evaluation procedures are
  poorly implemented
• External evaluations based on public available
  criteria not launched before 2006
• The evaluation body (QACS, Senate for Evaluation)
  has no decision making competences
• The pool of experts is not big enough, lack of
  appropriate training, lack of international
  experts, good participation of students
• The reports are not public available unless the
  institution itself is wiling to do that
• No follow up procedures included in the system
• Re-evaluation in 7 years
• One published analysis

9
EXTERNAL QA IN HE

• ESG
• Effectiveness of the internal QA procedures
• External QA processes determined and published
• criteria for decision should be published
• Processes fit for purpose
• Reporting
• Follow-up procedures
• Periodic reviews
• System-wide analysis

• SLOVENIA
• Moderate
• First 4 attempts of the external evaluation
• Criteria and guidelines adopted in 2004
• Not adequate
• Reports not available
• Follow-up procedures not determined
• Re-accreditation every 7 years
• Only one published yet

10
QA OF QA AGENCIES

• ESG
• External QA of QA agencies
• Official status
• Activities (institutional, program level)
• Resources
• Mission statement
• Independence (autonomous responsibility for their
  operation, no influence on conclusions)
• External QA criteria and processes predefined
• Accountability

11
QA OF QA AGENCIES IN SLOVENIA

• The evaluation role of QA agency is entrusted to
  Evaluation Senate of Council of Higher Education
  RS.The QA system is not established yet.
  Externally it is planed to be evaluated by ENQA
  or some other reliable European institution.
• The Senate is ready to carry out institutional
  evaluations. Lack of experts for programme
  evaluations
• No long term (stabile) planning of financial
  resources
• External QA criteria adopted by QACS in 2004

12
QA OF QA AGENCIES

• ESG
• External QA of QA agencies
• Official status
• Actvities (institutional, program level)
• Resources
• Mission statement
• Independence
• External QA criteria and processes predefined
• Accountability

• SLOVENIA
• Not yet established
• Defined by law of HE 2006
• Institutional only, 2006
• Limited
• Mission statement published by QACS
• YES NO ?
• Guidelines QACS 2004
• No quality management plan