1. Quality Assurance in Higher Education
Mohammad Sahadet Hossain, PhD
Additional Director
Institutional Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC)
North South University
Meet the SACs; 2nd June 2016.

2. Quality Assurance in the system of Higher Education
Meet the SACs; 2nd June 2016.

3. The session will include…
Quality & Quality Culture in HEI
QA Mechanism in Bangladesh
Quality Control (QC) & Quality Assurance (QA)
Self Assessment (SA) in QA
Self Assessment Committee (SAC) Activities
The continuation of QA Culture
IQAC, NSU

4. Very difficult to understand but easy to talk about
Quality & Quality Culture
Quality can not be
Seen
Smelt
Touched
Sold
purchased
Very difficult to understand but easy to talk about
What is
Quality ?
IQAC, NSU

5. What is Quality ? and quality can definitely be “felt / assessed”
Quality is to be
felt by all the stake holders
visible every where
a continuous process
and
quality
can
definitely be
“felt / assessed”
IQAC, NSU

6. Why Quality in Education?
The graduates must come out of the university equipped with requisite qualifications and skills that the society and the country need for achieving higher economic growth and prosperity. Here quality of graduates has been defined as, fitness of purposes (Woodhouse, 1999).Quality education includes (UNICEF, 2000)
Source: UGC IQUA manual.
IQAC, NSU

7. QA Mechanism in Bangladesh
Quality Higher education is necessary for the socioeconomic development of a country as it produces skilled workforce for the country.
The number of students at tertiary level in Bangladesh is approximately 3.0 million.
There are around 37 public and 91 private universities in Bangladesh.
Achieving quality in higher education is now the mission of the Government of Bangladesh (GOB).
The GOB, World bank has generously funded the project named- Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP), implemented by University Grants Commission. Quality Assurance Unit (QAU) is a part of HEQEP established at UGC to oversee the Quality Assurance (QA) activities at university level.
IQAC, NSU

8. And the real picture….. Prothom Alo- 21st May, 2016
Prothom Alo-29th March 2016
IQAC, NSU

9. Quality Assurance Principles (some major)
Responsibility: QA system of a HEI is primarily responsible for quality assurance in education;
Focus: on safeguarding the interests of the major stakeholders;
Involvement: Participation of all who are involved in the process of
Purpose: Quality assurance is not to prove anything but to improve;
Commitment: Commitment to continuous improvement;
Continuity: Quality Assurance is a dynamic and continuous process;
Flexibility: QA system need to be flexible enough to accept and accommodate
feedback from a variety of internal and external constituencies;
Fairness: Decisions and measures taken to redress problems and improve the
process need to be supported by adequate information and evidences;
Transparency: QA system need to be transparent in all aspects of its activities
including the academic and financial matters.
IQAC, NSU

10. The relation structure of QAC, IQAC, and SAC
IQAC, NSU

11. Self-Assessment Committee (SAC)
The SAC will function its activities for one year.
In one year period, the SAC will conduct the self assessment, submit the self assessment report (SAR), facilitate the external peer review and finally prepare an improvement plan
The SAC will work with IQAC to develop the overall QA condition of the department
The SAC will make sure that all the QA activities undertaken by the IQAC and applicable for the entity are being implemented properly.
IQAC, NSU

12. Self Assessment at Department Level
Program self assessment is the systematic collection , review and use of information about educational programs undertaken for the improvement of student learning. It helps the department to :
Better understand the ongoing programs under assessment
Revisit the program objectives and goals
Redress the intended learning outcomes of the program if necessary
Conduct SWOT analysis
Assess the adequacy of student support services for effective teaching learning
Assess the progress of improvement desired
Develop strategic plan with commitment and priorities for further improvement
IQAC, NSU

13. Self assessment criteria and standard
Governance
Curriculum content design and review
Student admission, progress and achievements
Physical facilities
Teaching-learning assessment
Student support services
Staff and facilities
Research and extension
Process management and continuous improvement
IQAC, NSU

14. Indicative Allocation to Academic Departments
Incentive for the 3 member SA Committee Tk. 320,000
Workshops (three workshops) Tk. 120,000
Printing and Stationary Tk ,000
Survey including questionnaire
preparation, data collection, data
analysis and TA/DA for the faculty
members involved in field work Tk. 243,800
Peer Review Tk. 250,000
Operating cost/contingencies Tk ,000
Total Tk 958,800
IQAC, NSU

15. SAC Incentive
Incentive: 4 months’ basic pay for the Head, 2 months’ basic pay for the members
Incentive according to public university pay scale for respective rank
IQAC, NSU

16. SAC Activities for one year
Prepare a self assessment activity schedule
Organize awareness building workshops
Prepare the survey tools for major stakeholders i.e. students, alumni, employers, staffs, non academic staffs etc.
Conduct the surveys
Prepare and analyze the data and prepare SAR
Organize workshop to share SAR findings
Propose the panel for external peer review to IQAC and conduct the external review
Prepare the improvement plan based on internal assessment and external peer review
The improvement plan will be submitted to the IQAC
IQAC, NSU

17. Thank You !! After one year ! The SA process will run for five years.
The first year is for assessments and design of improvement plans, and the next four years for implementation of improvement plans.
As the primary objective of the funding is to establish quality culture at department level and institution level, we hope NSU will continue the process and gradually implement the improvement plan on its own.
Thank You !!
IQAC, NSU