Transcript Reflection on OAC Manual Quality Audit

Reflection on OAC Manual
Quality Audit- Learning By Sharing
OQN Seminar
Wednesday 11 November,2009
Dr. Salha A. Issan
Questions to be considered
 How do institutions in Oman react towards
institutional Accreditation?
 Are/were HEIs ready for the self study and aware
of the Self Study Method?
 Why do/did employees find the Quality Audit
manual difficult to Apply?
 Are/ were people within these institutions
competent to prepare the Quality Audit Portfolio?
 Have these institution gone through any kind of
accreditation before?
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The Manual
• The OAC 's Accreditation Manual can
provide the basic framework by which an
institution may engage in self-evaluation
activities.
• The Accreditation Manual contains the
policies, procedures, and forms related
to the conduct of accreditation reviews of
eligible HEI and their programs.
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Self-study and Accreditation
 Self-study and accreditation are linked, but they
also are essentially parallel and different
procedures.
 Self-study is, as the name implies, a selfgenerated evaluation of one's own institutions or
programs,
 whereas the accreditation process involves
external peer review.
 Although the accreditation application can act as a
general guide to self-study, the application for
accreditation is not synonymous with self-study.
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Conducting Self- Study
 In conducting a self-study, many institutions have
established steering committees to coordinate the
various tasks involved in this complex effort.
 Members of these committees have to be trained
how to coordinate their work, to collect data related
and mainly how to use the manual.
 It is not enough to train the members of the main
Committee, but the Subcommittees members need
to be informed and trained how to accomplish their
tasks.
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Continued
 A prospectus should be developed before initiation
of the study.
 The prospectus guarantees that the self-study will
be comprehensive.
 The prospectus should specify the various
components of the institution/ program to be
assessed.
 It should indicate how data will be collected, what
the review procedure is, how progress will be
measured, how decisions will be reached, who will
have the responsibility for each task, and what the
general timelines will be.
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Manual Five Parts
1.
1- Overview of Quality Audit (including the audit
scope).
2- Self Study (resulting in the Quality Audit Portfolio
from the higher education providers’ HEP’s).
3- External Review (resulting in the Quality Audit Report
from the OAC).
4- Methods of Analysis (particularly for the Audit
Panels, but also helpful for Self Study purposes).
5- Appendices (including a number of helpful tools).
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Quality Audit
 The first stage in provider accreditation starting
from 2008, involves each HEI undergoing a
Quality Audit.
 The emphasis is on evaluating the effectiveness
of an institution’s quality assurance and quality
enhancements processes against its stated
goals and objectives.
 Quality Audit involves a Quality Audit self study
of HEI’s activities , resulting to a Quality Audit
Portfolio and then External verification of the
portfolio by external Audit panel convened by the
OAC
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Sections

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Governance and Management
Student Learning by Coursework Programs
Student Learning by Research Programs
Staff Research and Consultancy
Industry and Community Engagement
Academic Support Services
Students and Student Support Services
Staff and Staff Support Services
General Support Services and Facilities.
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Challenges
 Working Groups faced the difficulties to
identify the components of each section and
how to avoid the overlap in data presentation.
 How to differentiate between goals and
objectives.
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QUALITY OF THE DATA

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Data will be valid only if the measuring instrument
employed correctly evaluates what it is intended to
measure.
Institutions are not familiar with DATA COLLECTION
TECHNIQUES.
(a) critical study of available documentation
(document study);
(b) individual and group interviews;
(c) questionnaires .

Documentation is not widely practiced at all levels , that
demanded more time to search for data required.
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CONT.
 The existence and filing of documents
pertaining to the Inst./programme under
scrutiny.
 Some of public and private archives,
published statistics, data-banks, newspapers
and personal documents.
 These are not seriously considered by the
institution and little attention paid to their
archives.
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Calendar for Preparation of the Self
Study
Since the date for the evaluation visit is often
set more than a year in advance, a realistic
and detailed timetable for the organization
and completion of the self study report
should be developed and specifies in the
manual and modified according to the
institution size.
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Continued
 Individuals, who are currently serving on the
Council on Academic Accreditation or on the Board
of Directors are not eligible to serve during their
term of office as consultants to
institutions/programs seeking or maintaining
accreditation.
 Audit Visit Program is short (3 days) will not allow
the team to have enough time to review
documents and interview people concerned.
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ADRI four dimensions
 The Approach includes the trail from an organization's
mission, vision and values (i.e. its overall objectives)
through to more specific goals and the planned
arrangements for how these will be achieved. The latter
may culminate in written policies and procedures.
 The Deployment dimension considers whether, and
how effectively, the approach is being put into effect.
 The Results dimension looks at an organization's
results as a means of determining how well the
deployment is achieving the planned approach.
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•
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The Improvement dimension focuses on whether the
organization is actively and continuously engaged with
understanding its performance in each of the A-D-R
dimensions, and is using this understanding to bring about
improvements.
Salha Issan - SQU
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Manuals for each Process
 Manuals for each Process mentioned in The
Quality Audit Manual Institutional Accreditation
: Stage 1 were not prepared when many
institutions started Quality Audit Overview.
– Oman Qualification Framework (OQF).
– Oman Standard Classification of Education
Framework( OSCED).
– Oman HEI Classification Framework, and
others ( P. 12-13).
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Suggestions
 More Training should be offered for all
members working in HEIs.
 Training should cover all categories.
 More attention should be given to data
documentation.
 ADRI dimensions need to be elaborated.
 A local training group is required to ensure the
continuity and stability of Accreditation
processes.
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