An Internal Higher Education Quality Assurance

An Internal Higher Education Quality Assurance Professor Emeritus Dr. Kittichai Wattananikorn Chairman: Committee on Internal Quality Assurance in Higher Education

Quality assurance in Thailand is carried out under Chapter 6 of the National Education Act. B.E.2542 (1999)

Chapter6: Educational standards and Quality Assurance

Section47 There shall be a system of educational quality assurance to ensure improvement of education quality and standards at all levels. Such a system shall be comprised of both internal and external quality assurance (IQA&EQA).

The system, criteria, and methods for quality assurance shall be as stipulated in the ministerial regulations.

Chapter6: Educational standards and Quality Assurance

Section 48 Parent organizations with jurisdictions over educational institutions and the institutions themselves shall establish a quality assurance system in the institutions. Internal quality assurance (IQA) shall be regarded as part of educational administration which must be a continuous process. This requires preparation of annual reports to be submitted to parent organizations, agencies concerned and made available to the public for purposes of improving the educational quality and standards and providing the basis for external quality assurance (EQA).

Under the Act and the Ministerial Regulations IQA is the responsibility of two parties i.e. CHE and HEIs

CHE: 1) Introduce policies and guidelines for assessment exercise starting from Program, Department, Faculty to Institutional levels.

2) Develop a set of compulsory indicators (mainly input and process indicators) and criteria of assessment, so that HEIs can use to assess themselves in all dimensions of educational administration.

3) Use internal assessment results as part of the accrediting system for private HEIs. 4) Introduce a system for OHEC/Parent organizations to monitor and audit HEIs according to their improvement plans once every 3 years.

HEIs: 1) Develop their own IQA systems and implementation directions according to policies and guidelines provided by CHE .

2) Adopt additional indicators and criteria, apart from those of CHE and ONESQA (all ONESQA indicators are output/outcome indicators), to suit their own visions and environments.

3) Assess themselves and submit SARs to OHEC via CHE QA Online system at the end of every academic year.

Components and compulsory indicators for internal assessment, classified by types of HEIs i.e. Bachelor focused (B) Specialized (C1, C2) and Research (D) No

Indicators

B

C1 C2 D

Component 1: Philosophy, Commitments, Objectives, and Implementation plans / / / / 1.1 Planning Process /// /// /// /// + Two additional output/outcome indicators of ONESQA Component 2: Graduate Production / // // // 2.1 A system and mechanism for curriculum development and management // // // // 2.2 Academic staff holding doctoral degrees // // // // 2.3 Academic staff holding academic titles / / / / 2.4 A system for academic and supporting staff development / =Common indicator and criteria for every type of HEIs //= Common indicator but additional criteria for the types of HEIs ///= ONESQA indicators

Components and compulsory indicators for internal assessment, classified by types of HEIs i.e. Bachelor focused (B) Specialized (C1, C2) and Research (D) No

Indicators

B C1 C2 D

Component 2: Graduate Production (Cont.) / / / / 2.5 Libraries, learning resources, and learning environments / / / / 2.6 A system and mechanism for teaching and learning processes / // / // 2.7 A system and mechanism for development of student learning outcomes, according to the needs of society / / / / 2.8 A level of achievement on student morals and ethics /// /// /// /// + Five additional output/outcome indicators of ONESQA / =Common indicator and criteria for every type of HEIs //= Common indicator but additional criteria for the types of HEIs ///= ONESQA indicators

Components and compulsory indicators for internal assessment, classified by types of HEIs i.e. Bachelor focused (B) Specialized (C1, C2) and Research (D) No

Indicators Component 3: Student Development Activities 3.1 A system and mechanism for advisory and information services

B

C1 C2 D

/

/

/

/

3.2 A support system and mechanism for student activities

/

/

/

/

Component 4: Research 4.1 A system and mechanism for research and innovation development // / // / 4.2 A knowledge management of research and innovation / // / // 4.3 The amount of research grants per academic and research staff //* //* //* //* /// /// /// /// + Three additional output/outcome indicators of ONESQA / =Common indicator and criteria for every type of HEIs //= Common indicator but additional criteria for the types of HEIs //*= Different criteria for different groups of disciplines ///= ONESQA indicators

Components and compulsory indicators for internal assessment, classified by types of HEIs i.e. Bachelor focused (B) Specialized (C1, C2) and Research (D) No 5.1 5.2 + 6.1 +

Indicators

B C1 C2 D

Component 5: Academic Services to Community A system and mechanism for community academic services / / / An academic service process that benefit society / / / Three additional output/outcome indicators of ONESQA /// /// /// Component 6: Preservation of Arts and Culture A system and mechanism for arts and culture preservation / / / /// /// /// Two additional output/outcome indicators of ONESQA / =Common indicator and criteria for every type of HEIs ///= ONESQA indicators

/ / /// /

///

Components and compulsory indicators for internal assessment, classified by types of HEIs i.e. Bachelor focused (B) Specialized (C1, C2) and Research (D) No 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 +

Indicators

B

C C D 1 2

Component 7: Administration and management Leaderships of the university council and administrators in all levels / / / Institutional development for transformation into learning organization / / / An information technology system for administration and decision / / / making A risk management system / / / Two additional output/outcome indicators of ONESQA /// /// /// / =Common indicator and criteria for every type of HEIs ///= ONESQA indicators

/ / / / ///

Components and compulsory indicators for internal assessment, classified by types of HEIs i.e. Bachelor focused (B) Specialized (C1, C2) and Research (D) No

Indicators

B C1 C2 D

Component 8: Finance and Budgeting 8.1 A system and mechanism for finance and budgeting / / / / Component 9: System and Mechanism for Quality Assurance 9.1 A system and mechanism for internal quality assurance / / / / + One additional output/outcome indicators of ONESQA /// /// /// /// / =Common indicator and criteria for every type of HEIs ///= ONESQA indicators

No. of compulsory internal assessment indicators for HEIs classified by quality components Input

Process

Output/Outcome

Total

-

1 CHE

2 ONESQA

3

3 CHE

4 CHE

5 ONESQA + 1 CHE

13

-

2 CHE

-

2

1 CHE

2 CHE

3 ONESQA

6

5. Community Academic Services

-

2 CHE

3 ONESQA

5

6. Preservation & Promotion of Art and Culture

-

1 CHE

2 ONESQA

3

7. Administration and Management

-

4 CHE

2 ONESQA

6

8. Finance and Budgeting

-

1 CHE

-

1

9. System and Mechanism for Quality Assurance Total

-

1 CHE

1ONESQA

2

4 CHE

18 CHE

18 ONESQA + 1 CHE

41

Quality components

1. Philosophy, Commitments, Objectives and Implementation Plan 2. Graduate Production 3. Student Development Activities 4. Research

Relationship between IQA and EQA IQA (CHE and HEI) IQA Implementation

by HEI (Continuous process)

Assessment by HEI (Every year)

Feedback

1) On line SAR to OHEC (Every year) 2) Audit by OHEC (once every 3 years) Feedback

EQA (ONESQA)

Visit by ONESQA (Once very five years)

Evaluation Report by ONESQA (Once every five years)

Expected outcomes of the present IQA system

1. HEIs can strengthen the quality of graduates, research

outputs/outcomes, community services, as well as arts and culture promotions, by assessing and improving each indicator’s performance against the given criteria.

2. HEIs can continuously improve the quality of educational products through benchmarking among themselves, with the support of CHE QA online system.

3. OHEC can improve the reliability of Higher Education statistic information of HEIs, through the process of peer assessments by trained internal assessors.

Expected outcomes of the present IQA system 4. HEIs internal assessment and ONESQA external assessment

are effectively and properly aligned to meet the expectation of quality improvement, but reduce the unnecessary burdens to HEIs in preparing for the assessments.

5. Necessary information can be provided to OHEC and parent organizations, so that they can support and enhance HEIs in the appropriate ways.

6. Stakeholders can be provided with relevant information on the quality of each HEI for their uses.

Thank you for your attention