Transnational Quality Assurance Process - Findings from the Tempus-TLQAA project -

C. MokbelTempus-HERE Lebanon

Implementing Quality Assurance within Higher Education Institutions in the Tempus Partner Countries

12-13 June, 2014 – University of Zagreb, Croatia

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Outline

• The Tempus-TLQAA project

• Transnational Quality Assurance within the Lebanese Higher Education

• Major Findings

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Process of Establishing LQAA

The Lebanese Higher Education Context

Needs andDifferentTempusProjects

2010 LAESAmideastProject +Tempus -HERE

2011DraftLaw

TLQAATowards the Lebanese

Quality Assurance Agency• Prepare components

of the evaluation agency

• Proof of concept

2011 - - - - - - - - - 2013

legislative process

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TLQAA: Consortium

Ministry of EducationAnd Higher Education

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TLQAA: Technical Workpackages

WP1: Lebanese Quality Assurance ModelModèle pour le système libanais

d’assurance qualité

WP2: Standards and ProceduresRéférences et Procédures

WP3: Selection andTraining of ExpertsSélection et formation des experts

WP4: Pilot EvaluationEvaluation Pilote

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TLQAA: What has been achieved?• A consensus about the model

– The corner stone– Call for a firm respect of independence and the margin of an

agency to make the change and improvement• All components built and tested

– Standards– Procedures– Trained experts

• Five experts are currently participating in evaluations with AERES– Pilot evaluation

• Self assessment by 10 Lebanese universities• External evaluation of 5 institutions

• A book to summarize the experience and disseminate the major findings

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Transnational QA within the Lebanese HE

• Quality is universal projected onto different local contexts– Transnational quality assurance

• Quality assurance is a process– Transnational dimension crosses with

different parts of this process in various ways• International/regional: standards, agencies,

experts, programmes, …

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Transnational QA within the Lebanese HE

• Transnational QA has been a strong dimension in TLQAA– Several Lebanese HEIs are already accredited by

International agencies– Draft law calls for 2 international experts in the board

of trustees of the agency– The TLQAA Model:

• Standards to be in conformance with international standards• International experts to be present in the committees• Lebanese experts to be part in evaluation committees at the

international level

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Transnational QA within the Lebanese HE

QA Model

HEI

Authorities

AgencyLocal vs. International

StandardsProcedures

Local Needs vs.Conformance to

International Practices?

Evaluators(experts, reviewers)

Local vs. International?

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Transnational QA: The Evaluation Agency

• Some questions from the feedback in the TLQAA book:– For an institution that has been awarded accreditation by an external

body, would it still be necessary to be accredited by the national body?– Could the self-study report prepared for the external body serve as a

self-study report for the national body with the necessary adaptations?– Would an overlap in the self-study cycles for the national and external

quality assurance bodies be considered?– What mechanisms and procedures need to be established:

• to streamline processes and procedures in an attempt to minimize discrepancies between input and output requested by the national and external quality assurance bodies?

• to deal with incompatible recommendations provided by the national and external quality assurance bodies?

– Would effective collaborations between the national and external quality assurance bodies be established to cover all phases of the self-study process including peer review?

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Transnational QA: The Evaluation Agency• Additional questions:

– How to choose the external agencies that may accredit a national institution?• EQAR is an inspiring solution

– How an external agency would fit in the national system?

– How an external agency would adapt to the national system?

• May 8, 2014: Recent Law for the organization of the Lebanese Private HE– Law N. 285– A decree proposed by the Minister based on the

opinion of the national agency and issued by the Council of Ministers shall organize the accreditation procedures of the universities already accredited by external agencies

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Transnational QA: Standards vs Evaluators

• Standards and Procedures make the QA process transparent

• Standards and Procedures and Transnational QA– Ideally, common standards to all– However, the local contexts may differ largely– Possible solution:

• Make the evaluators (reviewers) who are the backbone of the evaluation process take into consideration the local constraints

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Transnational QA: Standards vs Evaluators

• Balance transparency and the ability of the evaluators to consider the local context

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Transnational QA: Standards vs Evaluators

• Possible solution: Consider different levels of standards: national, regional and international– ESG is an inspiring model

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Transnational QA: Standards vs Evaluators

• Another balance is needed between national, regional and international standards and how they respond to the different expectations– Crucial issue for the graduates to compete on

international job market

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Transnational QA: International Experts

• International Experts– In evaluation agency board

• Better consideration of international standards• More transparency

– As evaluators• External view• More transparency• In both directions

– The universal message of quality– Training of a pool of experts

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Major Findings• A national system is crucial and need to be open

and transparent to transnational evaluation– EQAR is an inspiring tool

• Multilevel standards– National, Regional and International– ESG is an inspiring model

• International Experts– In the governance of the system– In the evaluations– In both directions

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Standards

EvaluationCommittees

Q.A. Officers

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Standards

EvaluationCommittees

Q.A. Officers

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Thank YouSpecial thanks to

Tempus

We will be delighted if you visit

http://www.tlqaa.org