THE REVISION PROCESS FOR THE QUALITY ASSURANCE OF SPs ■ Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava ■ Faculty of Civil Engineering ■ Eva Jankovichová ■ Tajikistan, Dushanbe, March 2013

Revision Process The main aims: ● periodic revision of needs and objectives, ● educational process, ● resources and results, ● management system,

Revision Process The main aims: ● to guarantee the constant adequacy and effectiveness, ● to improve efficiency of the processes for the SPs management and of the associated results.

Revision Process requires the availability of the SPs results: - relative to entrance students - students’ learning - students’ progression in their studies - students’ opinion on the educational process - graduates’ placement and etc.

Revision Process ■ The Slovak higher education institutions (HEIs) are autonomous and self-governing institutions. ■ The Act on Higher Education defines the area of competence of various self-governing bodies of the higher education institution, as well as the central state administration, in relation to the HEIs.

Revision Process ■ From the viewpoint of quality assurance of research and teaching in a HEI, the Scientific Council of the higher education institution, headed by its rector, has a prior position (within the faculty, the Scientific Council of the faculty).

Scientific Council of the Faculty approves: ● the degree programmes and then the HEI asks the Accreditation Commission (AC) for the programme to be accredited, ● the criteria for awarding the scientific-teaching degrees of professor and docent, ● the criteria for filling posts of professor and docent within the framework of the HEI.

Scientific Council of the Faculty is accountable: ● for awarding the scientific-teaching degrees of professor and docent, ● posts of supervisors for doctoral candidates, and for the committees for final examinations of students.

Scientific Council of the Faculty ● The Act assigns to the Scientific Council the duty to evaluate at least once a year the level of the higher education institution’s educational activities and its activities in the field of science, technology or art. This area has not been regulated in greater detail, and there are no uniform rules for it, or recommendations that would enable mutual comparison of the quality that is achieved. No standards have been introduced for the structure of such an evaluation, or for methods to be used.

The Internal System of Control ● The Act on Higher Education stipulates that the HEIs shall also be concerned with quality of teaching as well as their research and creative activities. ● Within the framework of complex accreditation, the HEIs also submit an evaluation of their own activities to the AC. ● The Scientific Council of the HEI has the responsibility at least once a year to evaluate the level of the educational activities and activities in the field of science, technology or art at the HEI (visitation).

The Internal System of Control ● The students have the right to give their standpoint on the quality of teaching and on individual teaching staff members in the form of anonymous questionnaires at least once a year. ● HEIs and their departments make use of self- evaluation for development purposes and in order to identify threats. ● The results of these evaluations are not usually published. The assessment reports prepared for the AC by its working groups are made available only to the higher education institution concerned and to the Ministry of Education.

The Internal System of Control ■ Quality of provision of educational activities, and also of research activities, can be expressed through various attributes. Most attributes are therefore expressed in terms of general statements. It is necessary to provide for an agreement on the cases being assessed, and this is only possible by means of establishing control mechanisms.

The Internal System of Control ■The system of complex accreditations, within the framework of which higher education institutions are assessed once in six years, is an instrument that has been introduced to assure that HEIs continue to fulfill the required attributes and maintain the required standards.

The Accreditation Commission (AC) is established by law is an advisory body of the Government of the Slovak Republic - does not make decisions, but has the position of an independent professional body that issues standpoints and recommendations AC carries out accreditation of individual activities of HEIs - carries out regular complex accreditation of all HEIs in six-year intervals

The Accreditation Commission (AC) ■ it gives its opinion on capacity of the higher education institution to: - implement the study programme with the right to award to its graduates the academic degree, In the accreditation of the study programme, an assessment is carried out of the curriculum, student profile, applicant requirements, selection of students, graduation requirements, personnel, material, technical and information provision for the programme, and the educational level of graduates and students of the programme.

The Accreditation Commission (AC) ■ it gives its opinion on capacity of the higher education institution to: - proposal for granting the State consent for a legal entity wishing to act as a HEI, - to conduct the habilitation procedure and procedure for nomination of professors, - proposals of establishment, merger, affiliation, split, dissolution, change of name or change of seat,

The Accreditation Commission (AC) ■ it gives its opinion on capacity of the higher education institution to: - proposal for classification of higher education institutions as research universities, universities and professional higher education institutions, - proposal for change in the system of fields of study, - other proposals with regard to the system of higher education presented by the Minister.

Reporting ●The standpoints of the AC are published on the Commission’s website. ●The assessment reports prepared under the complex accreditation scheme contain a summary of recommendations for the higher education institution to improving the operation of the institution.

The Quality Management System of the Educational Process 1. Quality policy Faculty of CE SUT 2. The educational process assurance 2.1 Planning of the educational process 2.2 Implementation and monitoring of the quality of the educational process 3. Objectives quality of the educational process Source: [1] GAŠPARÍK, J.: Quality Management System of Educational Process. Bratislava: Slovak University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Bratislava 2009, 13 pp.

The Quality Management System of the Educational Process ● For the quality of education is responsible dean, vice-dean for education and curriculum guarantors. ● The quality of study subjects are responsible guarantors of study subjects and their proposed seminar leader. ● In planning the educational process plays an important role the educational board of SP.

The Quality Management System of the Educational Process The requirements of the students, the practice and the Ministry of Education to analyze and design by the guarantors and their teams of educational boards: study programs curriculum contents of the study subjects

Monitoring of the Quality of the Educational Process ● The aim of monitoring the quality of the educational process is detecting errors and weaknesses in the educational process and the subsequent elimination of these shortcomings. ● For all the shortcomings identified by the self-checking and control of the educational process is necessary for the teacher to take corrective action and report on these measures guarantor of the SP.

Monitoring of the Quality of the Educational Process Input quality control: ● syllabus, teaching guides and literature provided by the faculty, ● didactic technique used by teachers, ● training of teachers.

Monitoring of the Quality of the Educational Process Continuous quality control: ● regular visitation by faculty management and guarantors of the study program, ● visitation and monitoring of pedagogical documentation and teaching process stemming from complaints of students, ● regular assessment of the educational process by the educational board.

Monitoring of the Quality of the Educational Process Output quality control: ● compliance with the requirements of the students' knowledge, ● graduate success of university studies at all levels of study, ● average length of studying, ● practical application, ● the quality assessment of graduates by practice.

Monitoring of the Quality of the Educational Process Shortcuts: R-responsible, A-approved Source [1] : GAŠPARÍK, J.: Quality Management System of Educational Process. Bratislava: SUT, Faculty of CE, Bratislava 2009, 13 pp. Translation: Eva Jankovichová

Overview of Changes and Revisions Principles: 1. Quality monitoring is an essential part of the educational process, which reveals the reserves in the learning process and leads to the improvement.

Overview of Changes and Revisions Principles: 2. The basic criteria for monitoring the quality of the educational process include: ● assessment of human resources (implementation of qualification criteria) ● assessment of infrastructure (used classroom teaching equipment, computers, testing laboratories, etc.) ● the availability and timeliness of the study literature (books, textbooks, teaching tools, etc.).

Overview of Changes and Revisions Principles: 3. An important part of monitoring the quality of educational process is the level of lectures and seminars (ability of teacher to take a student and get them to subject, use the modern didactic techniques, student participation in lectures, system testing (objectivity), etc.).

Overview of Changes and Revisions Principles: 4. A very precious feedback for teachers is assessment of educational process by students (anonymous questionnaire) and assessment the quality of students by practice.

Overview of Changes and Revisions Principles: 5.The result of monitoring the quality of educational process is the detection defects and a teacher’s opportunity to take corrective actions to improve access to the educational (pedagogical) process. Developed: Guarantor Verified: Vice-Dean Approved: Dean

Challenges and Agenda Ahead ● Improving the internal mechanisms of quality assurance within HEIs is a key task for further development of the whole system of higher education. ● Lack of formalization, objectification and evaluation of the efficiency of individual instruments of internal quality assurance are the greatest shortcomings in terms of ESG implementation.

Challenges and Agenda Ahead ● The national policy, stipulating that all HEIs must perform internal evaluations and make the results public, is understandably rather general, giving HEIs a leeway for implementing internal policies in line with their profile, needs, and development preferences. Source: [2] Studies on Higher Education Implementation of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education in the Central and East-European Countries – Agenda Ahead by Jan KOHOUTEK (Editor) Bucharest 2009, ISBN © UNESCO 2009.

■ Thank you very much for your attention. ■ Eva Jankovichová ■