Why is internal assessment of education quality tantamount to external?

 Both external and internal quality assurance mechanisms lead to innovative teaching and learning methods, curriculum development and many other positive changes. Unlike external, the internal assessment of education quality is the responsibility of higher education institutions themselves and includes a system of quality management, various procedures of self –assessment and monitoring of academic achievements. Amirbekova and Satiyeva (2013) draw the attention to the fact that now the central tendency at many institutions is that “the central gravity” is being moved from the procedure of external quality control based on national system of attestation and accreditation towards internal self-assessment based on one or other quality management models.   The authors are proud of the institution where they work [Shakarim State University, Semey], for having developed its own policy and mission in the field of quality assurance; they have identified the following three categories in improving quality management: updating the system of internal quality assessment of education services, implementation of modern methods of monitoring and analysis of university processes.

The compliance of overall internal performance in full line with existing requirements and available capacity to the vision and mission of the institution is of significant importance. External assessment is neither a challenge or burden for any institution, where regular efforts are made to  internally control the quality provided.  Weber (2007) highlights that in order to carry out self-assessment, institution “has to evaluate the performance of its functions, services and administration” (p. 95). As a rule, wide range of external, internal stakeholders are interested in the performance of the institutions, and the quality of the service provided. This wide range of stakeholders can be involved and they are usually attracted to take part in the quality review through questionnaires, focus groups, self-assessment reports and peer review groups.

Higher education institutions should have explicit set of values and develop their own mission and aims in order to form the basis for the development and assessment of the quality of the institution.  During the course, our professor provided an opportunity to have a personal communication with the Director of Independent Agency of Education Quality Assurance, Kalanova Sholpan Murtazaevna. Guest speaker shared with us the firsthand information about general tendencies and rationale of education quality assurance. She broadly explained the roles and responsibilities of CHEA, ENQA and EQAR. One important moment to be noted is that according to Kalanova, the article of the Law on education in the RK in 2007 about voluntary basis of accreditation did not stimulate the passing of accreditation, though achieving quality is a joint responsibility of all the partners in higher education. According to her, all the stakeholders should see on going quality improvement as an essential goal of their learning, teaching and research. In addition, agencies on their turn have positive and constructive approach. Their procedures, criteria and process are usually pre-defined and publicly available because they have to produce adequate information understandable for the readers based on results of their quality review. A group of experts including a student member usually conducts this kind of review. They visit the site and present follow up report that plays very important role and must be accessible for the public. It contains formal outcomes, the decisions of the experts and recommendations. Kalanova does not exclude the cases of discrepancy between report and real situation sometime. Stakeholders should realize the impact of improvement-led evaluations and be open in promoting change. They should use the outcomes of quality assurance for their benefit. It is even advisory.

References:

Аmirbekov, Sh. А., Satiyeva, Sh. S. (2013).  Regionalnaya sistema otsenki kachestva obrazovaniya v respublike Kazakhstan [Regional education quality assurance system in the Republic of Kazakhstan].  Science and world, 6 (10). Vol. II. 54. Psychological sciences.

Weber, L., Dolgova-Dreyer, K. (2007). The legitimacy of quality assurance in higher education: The role of public authorities and institutions. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.