presentation to inqaahe conference tallinn, estonia may...
TRANSCRIPT
Presentation to INQAAHE Conference Tallinn, Estonia
May 2014
The experience of a small quality assurance agency seeking INQAAHE recognition
Tim Klassen – Director, OCQAS
Quick facts: ◦ Education in Canada is a provincial mandate and there is
no national/federal education body or authority ◦ In Ontario there are 24 colleges serving about 200
communities 22 English-language; 2 French-language
◦ Colleges established by provincial government and operate as crown agencies
◦ About 500,000 students enrolled in 700 programs per annum 200,000 full-time
300,000 part-time
◦ Full range of programs offered from basic literacy to baccalaureate degree
OCQAS – Responsible to the colleges through an
arms-length Management Board
CVS – Program – level
Quality Assurance
PQAPA – Institutional – level Quality Assurance
2002 o Provincial government mandates the development of a self-
regulatory quality assurance mechanism for colleges
2005 o Quality assurance service begins with the Credentials Validation
Service for program-level quality assurance and initial plans for the Program Quality Assurance Process Audit at the institutional level
2006 o External evaluation of service conducted by Dr. Massy
2010 o External evaluation of service conducted by J. Randall
Ontario College Quality Assurance Service (OCQAS) ◦ Committed to continuous improvement
2 external reviews in 5 years
◦ Initial self-study assessed against 3 sources – alignment Founding principles of Service
ENQA Standards for External QA Agencies
INQAAHE Guidelines of Good Practice
● Self-Study Assessment Report ●Guidelines of Good Practice – as an assessment tool
● Measured organization and performance against the GPP in preparation for external evaluation
● “They [GGP] are designed for use by EQAAs in all stages of development and as the OCQAS falls into this category [development], it is timely and correct that we evaluate our structure and operations against these Guidelines.”
● Each of the Guidelines were considered and responded to in detail and the findings were “instructive”.
● Example: Section 1 iii) Quality Assurance of EQAA
● “The EQAA has a system of continuous quality assurance of its own activities that emphasizes flexibility in response to the changing nature of higher education, the effectiveness of its operations, and its contribution toward the achievement of its objectives.
● The EQAA conducts internal self-review of its own activities, including consideration of its own effect and value.
● The EQAA is subject to external reviews at regular intervals. There is evidence that any required actions are implemented and disclosed.”
Results : ◦ Assessing our structures and operations against the GGP showed
that while we were doing well (meeting the GGPs) in some areas, there were others where we had evidence of deficits
Governance – needed work to ensure independence of operations and decisions
Resources – small, streamlined, effective and efficient
Quality Assurance – commitment to continuous improvement evident
Reporting Public Information - all relevant information on publicly available website
Relationships with HE institutions – strength area
Requirements for Institutional performance – information is clear, available and regularly up-dated as part of commitment to CI
Requirements for institutional self-evaluation and reporting – as above
Evaluation of the HE institutions; decisions and appeals – strength area; only 1 appeal heard in over 40 quality audits
Collaboration – area strength with many partners in place
Transnational / cross-border activity - an area of continued and continuing development
Randall Report – Recommendations and Response ◦ Some changes to quality criteria including the addition
of one criterion ◦ Quality Criteria became Quality Standards ◦ Changes to composition of Management Board to
include external member and student voice ◦ Utilize international partners in monitoring of “off -shore
program delivery” ◦ Application to INQAAHE for recognition as meeting GGP ◦ Recognition received December 2011 ◦ Started formal transition from Academic Audits to
Accreditation
The Ontario College Quality Assurance Service
www.ocqas.org
Tim Klassen, Director
20 Bay Street, Suite 1600
Toronto Ontario Canada
M5J 2N8
647-258-7682 – office
416-270-3093 - mobile