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Project Overview:  

Quality of education has become a widely debated topic on a global scale. Due to reforms in higher education to address the challenges of quality external mechanisms of quality assurance have been established. Governments have been increasingly engaged in the quality control of higher education institutions and-or their programmes through periodic external assessments, but higher education institutions are also responding to quality concerns by setting up internal quality assurance (IQA) mechanisms for the purpose of monitoring and management of education.

Higher education aims to fulfil multiple purposes on top of equipping the students with up-to-date knowledge and skills, HEI strive for preparing students for active citizenship, for their future careers, contributing to their employability, supporting their personal development, creating a broad advanced knowledge base, and stimulating research and innovation. Therefore, stakeholders, who may prioritize different purposes, can view quality in higher education differently and quality assurance needs to consider these different perspectives. Quality is a result of the interaction between teachers, students, and the institutional learning environment. Quality assurance should ensure a learning environment in which the content of programmes, learning opportunities and facilities are fit for purpose.

At the heart of all quality assurance activities are the twin purposes of accountability and enhancement. Taken together, these create trust in the higher education institution’s performance. Quality assurance and quality enhancement are interconnected. They can support the development of a quality culture that is embraced by all: from the students and academic staff to the institutional leadership and management. Quality assurance policies are most effective when they reflect the relationship between research and learning & teaching and take account of both the national context in which the institution operates, the institutional context and international perspectives.

The University's mission is to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. This reflects one of its core values, which is to provide quality and depth of provision across all subjects. The University's quality assurance procedures provide a framework within which its institutions can examine and enhance their education to enable them to achieve this aspiration of excellence. 

Project goal 

The IQAinAR project aims to contribute to the enhancement and development of the internal quality assurance in HEIs in three Partner countries - Azerbaijan and Russia with international (EU) quality standards as benchmark while the same time strengthening the HEIs towards local, regional and national policies and strategies implementation. This project will focus on two main areas of HE: quality assurance of teaching (teaching, learning and assessment) and quality assurance of teacher (educator, practitioner researcher) as teacher is the key player to carry out the quality of teaching.  

The project aims to enhance the quality of teaching/learning at a university level (teacher dimension – develop professional competencies of teachers), foster the quality of learning (student dimension - ability to learn, LLL, motivation, soft and hard skills of students), enhance the quality of research in relation to teachers and learners (publishing in peer reviewed journals, involvement of student researchers, collaboration in research, creating research environment and research culture). 

Specific Objectives

  1. Benchmark analysis of the internal QA in HE in Europe 
  2. Baseline study of the internal Quality Assurance (IQA)at local/regional level (AZ, RU) 
  3. Development and testing of internal Quality Assurance enhancement strategy in HEI (AZ, RU)  
  4.  Creation of IQA Indicators (IQAI) and assessment scale 
  5.  Development of trainings programs and certification of HE experts in QA (study modules incl. basics of quality culture, lectures, video tutorials, IQAI guidelines, information management on systematic collection and analysis of data etc.); Elaboration of the study programs in research (study modules incl. basics of quality culture, lectures, video etc.)  
  6.  Capacity building of the staff from partners´ universities on the IQA: training and certification;  
  7.  Creation and launching of online platform with open access for HEIs and all interested parties: ● IQAI ● online training programs in QA ● videos (case studies, interviews) ● promotion ● documentation. 

 

Concrete DELIVERABLES - outputs/outcomes (grouped in Work packages), leading to the specific objectives above

(PREP): Peer Learning stage Design of the IQA Policy and Strategy

1.1 Update State of Art in Partner Countries (baseline studies)

1.2 Kick-off meeting; Peer learning seminar in the Wittenborg University to learn the best practices from the Program countries

1.3 National workshops in RU and AZ with participation of the main stakeholders (students, university administration and teaching staff, employers)

1.4 Elaboration of IQA roadmap, policy and strategies on an institutional level based on student-centered education, quality enhancement of academic staff in teaching and research.

(DEV): Elaboration and implementation of IQA indicators, policy and strategy, results analysis and improvement of IQA

2.1. Study Visit to WP Leader focusing on policy for quality assurance integrated at a university level

2.2. Designing the complex methodology of IQA system in student-centred education

2.3. Designing the complex methodology of IQA system in the improvement of the quality of the teaching staff and research

2.4. Workshop in Partner countries with participation of the main stakeholders (students, university administration and teaching staff, and employers)

2.5. Implementation of the IQA policy and strategy in Partner countries of the project

2.6. Communication and analysis of the results of the IQA system implementation at a workshop in the Program country

2.7. Introduction of a shared IQA systems in IQAinAR Program and Partner countries in student mobility and internalization of education aspects

DEVELOPMENT: Training of specialists in QA at HEIs, Tutorial

3.1. Design online training course on QA: how-to-use indicator for quality assurance officers of universities (study modules incl. basics of quality culture, lectures, video tutorials etc.)

3.2. Design online training course on Enhancement of delivery for teachers in HEi (study modules incl. basics of quality culture, lectures, video tutorials etc.)

3.3. Design online training course on Stimulation and integration of research active learning and teaching environment (study modules incl. basics of quality culture, lectures, video tutorials etc.)

3.4. Study Visit to International University of Applied Sciences Bad Honnef to discuss the drafts of the online training courses, format of the courses, and elaboration of certifying procedures for the designed online training courses.

3.5. Piloting of the online training courses in partner countries HEi, certification of participants. 3.6. Webinar with the partner countries, demonstration lessons and analysis of the outcomes

(DEV): E-platform

4.1. Elaboration of online platform with open access for HEIs for all interested parties (linked to the project´s website) ● documents ● online training programs in QA ● Intern al QA indica tors for HE ● video s (case studie s, interv iews) ● QA tools ● adver tisem ents, etc

4.2. Study Visit to International University of Applied Sciences Bad Honnef – design tools to collect student & teachers feedback & best practice; design tools to improve learnerteacher relationship

4.3. Integration in the platform of online training course on QA: how-to-use indicator for quality assurance officers of universities; online training course on Enhancement of delivery for teachers in HE; online training course on Stimulation and integration of research active learning and teaching environment

4.4. Integration in the online platform of Internal QA indicators for HE

4.5. Integration in the online platform of the tools to collect student & teachers feedback & best practice; tools to improve learner-teacher relationship 4.6. Test and launching of the online platform

4.1. Elaboration of online platform with open access for HEIs for all interested parties (linked to the project´s website) ● documents ● online training programs in QA ● Intern al QA indica tors for HE ● video s (case studie s, interv iews) ● QA tools ● adver tisem ents, etc  

4.2. Study Visit to International University of Applied Sciences Bad Honnef – design tools to collect student & teachers feedback & best practice; design tools to improve learnerteacher relationship  

4.3. Integration in the platform of online training course on QA: how-to-use indicator for quality assurance officers of universities; online training course on Enhancement of delivery for teachers in HE; online training course on Stimulation and integration of research active learning and teaching environment  

4.4. Integration in the online platform of Internal QA indicators for HE  

4.5. Integration in the online platform of the tools to collect student & teachers feedback & best practice; tools to improve learner-teacher relationship 4.6. Test and launching of the online platform 

4.7. Webinar with the partner countries, demonstration lessons and analysis of the outcomes;  

Webinar with the partner countries, demonstration lessons and analysis of the outcomes;

Quality Plan

5.1 Quality assurance plan

5.2 Internal quality control

5.3 External Evaluation and auditing

5.4 Intellectual property agreement

Dissemination and Exploitation

6.1 Informative website (basic), Newsletters, press releases, short articles and promo materials (booklets, brochures, T-shirts, …)

6.2 Informative institutional seminar (by each partner countries HEi) at the beginning of the project (after 1.1)

6.3 Exploitation local/regional workshops (3 by each partner countries HEi partner: at the beginning of each year)

6.4 Editing and printing of final products

6.5 National conference in Moscow

6.6 International conference in Moscow

6.7 Wide distribution of final products ●Articles, conference papers and posters ●Use if dissemination channels: TV, social ●media, networks, … ●Creation of a series of TV programs by ●university TV channels from consortium ●members on career ●chances/advancem ent/recommendati ons/int ●reviews etc. ●Links in relevant websites (the Ministry, ●universities, companies, the Union of ●Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, other ●stakeholders) ●International education-labour market fair or other.

 

7.1 Partner agreements

7.2 Mgmt Team meetings documentation

7.3 Full partners’ meetings documentation

7.4 General mgmt and monitoring tables and documentation

7.5 Progress and Final reports

END RESULTS

The key outcome of the project will be development of internal quality assurance indicators, IQAI for HE in teaching, learning and assessment; as well as teacher training and certification of HE experts in education quality in respect of Internal Quality Assurance.

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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission – 619477-EPP-1-2020-1-NL-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP.
The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.