National Quality Assurance and Accreditation Committee National Quality Assurance and Accreditation Committee &&

Quality Assurance and Accreditation ProjectQuality Assurance and Accreditation Project

Engineering National Academic Reference Standards

April ,2007

Mostafa Mohsen Radwan

Vice Dean, Faculty of Engineering, Fayoum UniversityDirector, Fayoum University Quality Assurance and Strategic

Planning Center

Member of the Quality Assurance and Accreditation Committee

Education System

secondary education

“bachelor”

“master”

professional orientation

“master”,

research oriented

professional doctorates

Ph.D.

Life-long learning Labour market

Initial H.E.

Local and

Regional

Inter-national

Education System

H.E. Providers

Q.A. Agency(or None !)

Government

Customers:Students

Customers:Employers, Professions

The Globalisation Challenge:The WTO Agenda

GATS: General Agreement on Trades and Services

Is education a service? Yes, but…◦Education has a public good character at least up to

secondary education◦Private benefits outweigh public benefits for

postgraduate ‘job training‘Is higher education the borderline?

◦Europe: higher education is a public good thinking of undergraduate higher education

(‘initial’ higher education)

◦USA: post-initial higher education is a service

The Globalisation Challenge:

Who are the Actors?WTO is inter-governmentalFor a governmental task: regulate

marketsActors on the higher education

market are◦higher education institutions◦virtual/online universities◦corporate universities◦and their hybrids

Actors decide autonomously to be ‘global players’ or not

Three common terms“internationalization of education”

as the most comprehensive“cross border education” as a

subset of “internationalization of education”, and

“trade in education services” as an instance of cross border education.

Knight (2004)

“Brains Business”Economist Magazine special issue on higher

education◦ “Mass higher education is forcing universities to

become more diverse, more global and much more competitive.

◦ A more market-oriented system of higher education can do much better than state-dominated model.”

Challenge◦ How to balance increased access with quality and

equity◦ How to take the advantages of market mechanisms

while avoiding the pitfalls

The Bologna Process – Europe facing the

challengeBologna 1999 – Prague 2001 – Berlin 2003

– Bergen 2005 – London 2007 Important themes: the transparency,

compatibility, comparability, and flexibility of European higher education

Increasing focus on quality assuranceCentral stakeholders: universities, students,

teachers, employers, and society.

International QA system??? Strengthening of existing national quality

assurance agencies (a) to stimulate international cooperation and (b) to accommodate challenges generated by transnational education and trade in education services;

Cooperation and networking in cross-border projects on quality assessments and mutual recognition agreements;

Implementation of a framework and standard of meta-accreditation of quality assurance agencies on an international and global level; and

Development of international QA schemes

WHY SHOULD STUDENTS PARTCIPATE IN QUALITY?

Are students customers in higher education?◦If yes, what rights do they have in the

institution?Are students stakeholders in

higher education?◦Do they participate in decision-making◦Do they get support in order to participate

effectively

Common Part

*Practical

*General&transferable

*Intellectual

*Knowledge &understanding

SOME STATEMENTS

QA is not a science, but common sense

Instruments are important, but the right

attitude is much more important

There is still a lot to be done

QA is the responsibility of everybody

QA should be part of the overall policy

and management

THANK YOUTHANK YOU

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