Public Accreditation Agency for Higher Education, PAAHE   Improving the ranking model of the Albanian higher education institutions Niko Hyka PAAHE, Head of Statistics and analyses sector www.aaal.edu.al www.albranking.com  nikohyka@aaal.edu.al

Presentation Outlines Higher Education Institutions and Programmes in Albania CHE – PAAHE, First Ranking process in 2011 Methodology and results Problems and recommendations Improvements of ranking model Infrastructure and new model for next ranking processes APAAL

Organizational Structure of Higher Education in Albania Council of Ministers Ministry of Education Council for Higher Education Conference of Rectors Accreditation Council Academy of Sciences Public Accreditation Agency, PAAHE Student Council Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) APAAL

58 HEIs Public , 14 HEIs Private, 44 HEIs Geographical distribution of public & private of higher education institutions in Albania Public , 14 HEIs 6 universities in Tirana, 6 regional 1- university of Arts 1 -military academy 5 regional faculties (branch) Total 650 programmes Private, 44 HEIs 34 HEIs in Tirana, 10 regional HEI-s 7 universities, 26 higher schools, 5 colleges, 6 academy Total 600 HE programmes ● Peshkopi 58 HEIs Berat

PAAHE DIRECTOR Promotion and Quality Assessment Sector 6 Persons Statistics and Analyses Sector 4 Persons Publication and support services Sector 4 persons PAAHE is responsible for: Evaluation of New and existing HE Institutions and Programs Evaluation: process, procedure, peer team, follow up, System-wide analysis; comparative, ranking Reporting: periodical, analytical, comparative Publication of results of accreditation and ranking Collaboration with HEIs for Internal Quality Assurance and Quality Audit/ Quality Assurance Unit Supporting Accreditation Council and experts; secretariat, infrastructure, logistic, financial APAAL

PAAHE and Ranking CHE and PAAHE, developed the first ranking process in Albania. (October 2010 – June 2011) Main purpose: Giving information to prospective students: informed choice Information to academics in higher education institutions: Comparison and positioning, strengths and weaknesses Information for deans / rectors. Benchmarking, strengths and weaknesses Information for policy makers APAAL

CHE MODEL DATA SOURCES Field-based ranking Multi-dimensional ranking labour market, employability city, university students study outcome teaching resources research overall assessment (students, professors) internatio- nalisation University Data (33 University survey) Faculty Data (55 Survey for each faculty of HEI Program data (200 Survey for programmes involved in ranking) Student data (7500 Student questionnaires for 2 & 3 year student of each program ). NOT VALID INFORMATION FOR THIS RANKING Academic staff data (300 Full time academic staff of each HEI) 50 PAAHE External peer review experts survey Field-based ranking Multi-dimensional ranking Rank Groups top middle bottom APAAL

Selection of institutions Criteria for participation: 1. Institutions have to be licensed (Council of Minister decision) 2. Study programmes of the first cycle have to be licensed 3. Programmes have to be in operation; should have 3 year students 4. Number of students per field > 15 5. Programmes have to be full time programmes 6. Different branches/campuses treated as separate units 4 Study Fields, 22 programs: Law (3 programs) Healthcare (3 programs) Social sciences (6 programs) Economy- business (10 programs) Only 33 institutions fullfiled these criteria and participatein this proces (7 public universities, 26 private HEIs)

Ranking 2011 Ranking was based on self declaration of data from HEIs PAAHE’s staff collected data from HEIs (University data, faculty data, programs data, student data, staff data, APAAL’s experts data). In this process, participate 33 HEIs (universities, Higher educations schools, branches etc) in 4 field: 1-Social sciences, 2-nursing, 3-economy and law. In this fields study more than 65 % of Albanian students Are interviewed more than 7500 students, 100 rector and deans, about 3000 academic staff and more than 50 APAAL’s external experts. PAAHE ‘s Statistics and Analyses Sector, was responsible for data collection and CHE for analyzing with our staff APAAL

Results Results of this process are made public on final report (July 2011- (http://www.ireg-observatory.org/pdf/Ranking_Albania_Final_report_1307.pdf) www.albranking.com www.aaal.edu.al APAAL

Problems and recommendations Big differences between HEIs: 100 students in small HEIs – 30000 students UT Most of private HEIs are new ( 3- 5 year old) Not all HEIs have institutional accreditation, not all programs are accredited Missing data for research & projects, graduate students, employability for many HEIs Low level of reliability of the data collected by questionnaires, (student survey, research, facilities etc) Insufficient knowledge from HEIs about the ranking Low credibility of HEIs to organizers (PAAHE / SAS) PAAHE / SAS had no proper infrastructure for the development of future processes APAAL

Recommendations CHE recommendations: Establishing a special ranking unit within APAAL separate from the accreditation staff. This is important to avoid misunderstandings about the different roles and functions of ranking and accreditation. Re-design of student survey Design of a new student survey Elements: US Survey of Student Engagement, Ranking of dimensions within faculties by students New issues Feedback on indicators Feedback on data collection instruments Establishing of an advisory board which should be composed by members representing different stakeholders APAAL

SAS Recommendations… After analysis of the first ranking process from July to October 2011, Statistics and Analyses Sector recommended to PAAHE- MoES: Improvement of legal documentation in the context of ranking Institutional accreditation for all HEIs, accredited programs Information, consultation, discussions with all stakeholders and HEIs Collaboration with experts and stakeholders for development of some questionnaires Transparency and independence of the process at any stage Appropriate infrastructure (software, server, website for ranking) Sufficient financial support to SAS (financial support from the PAAHE’s budget, registration fee in the process of ranking, fee per program, fee per student) APAAL

Improvements of ranking model SAS is based on CHE ranking Model. After 2 years of experience and work, we have design a new ranking model fully adapted to the context of higher education in Albania. The model uses a large number of questions, grouped according to the indicators of each study field. For qualitative or quantitative data, weight factors are used for analysing and processing in statistical data software. we designed new questionnaires for: institutional organization, academic staff (part time and full time), students, research –projects-publications, graduate students, We are based on “Multi-dimensional ranking“ for different preferences, priorities and profiles The methodology of publication and giving results for prospective students is included with a web application module on website dedicated only for ranking (www.albranking.com) APAAL

Improvements on infrastructure Regulations and procedures for ranking processes We developed a software ( APAAL Management Software) dedicated for accreditation and ranking processes This program will manage all data from HEIs, questionnaires etc APAAL

Infrastructure Web & mobile application version of “APAAL Management software” Website dedicated for ranking process and publication of results www.albranking.com On Line portal for PAAHE staff, surveys, importing data etc APAAL

Conclusions… After 2 year, staff of SAS and PAAHE, has the experience to develop the new ranking process in Albania for other study fields and programs This sector has the right infrastructure and support to continue in other ranking processes Database of HEIs, research, academic staff, students, alumni etc, is verified and now completed. We have the possibility to check the data declared by HEIs through questionnaires Institutions are now more sensitive to the importance that is ranking in informing of prospective students PAAHE will require collaborations with other international organizations in the field of ranking, especially with CHE APAAL

Acknowledgment … We thanks CHE (Center for Higher Education), Germany: For trainings of our staff For supporting us in all steps of the ranking process For methodology and documents, APAAL

Public Accreditation Agency for Higher Education, PAAHE ADRESS: Rr.Durresit",   Tirana, Albania Tel/Fax: 04 22 66 302. E-mail: nikohyka@aaal.edu.al Web: www.aaal.edu.al, www.albranking.com Niko Hyka Avni Meshi Edmond Mino Dafina Xhako Thank you APAAL