<p><font color="#33711E"><strong>Day 3 - Session 6B: Quality Assurance in Southeast Asia: Sharing Experiences, Shaping the Future</strong></font></p>
Queen's Park 4, 13:30 - 15:00
13:30 - 13:50
6.B.1. Quality Enhancement of Higher Education: Open and Distance Learning Perspectives
Paulina Pannen SEAMOLEC, Indonesia
ICT-based open and distance learning has impacted higher education operation and has created alternative models of teaching and learning, increased web-based delivery of higher education, new roles for faculty, and new types of providers of higher education. This has been further substantiated by the growth of trans-border education, and the use by educational institutions of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) technologies to enlarge their course, programme, and degree offerings, and to import and export education programs and services across nations. The popular trend of trans-border education and the emergence of global lifelong learning movement in which lifelong learners opt for ODL to enable them to study while still meeting their social and professional responsibilities, has led to a greater demand for higher quality education. Quality assurance in ODL is linked to quality assurance of higher education in general. There are, however, some distinctive characteristics of ODL. In some countries, the national frameworks for quality assurance and accreditation has taken into account the practice of ODL, however in many countries quality assurance in ODL remains a challenge. Furthermore, the lack of comprehensive frameworks for coordinating various ODL initiatives, leave ODL outside most quality assurance and accreditation frameworks. This makes students and other stakeholders vulnerable to low-quality provision and disreputable providers of ODL, especially in the case of trans-border education. This paper will discuss the issues of quality assurance in ODL, frameworks for quality assurance in ODL, and some practices of quality assurance in ODL institutions in Southeast Asia thus far.
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13:50 - 14.10
6.B.2. The Role of EQA for Enhancing the Quality of Higher Education
Somwung Pitiyanuwat
Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment, Thailand
Thailand has a large and comprehensive higher education system, comprising both public and private sectors, and both degree-granting and sub-degree institutions. At present, higher education is under the supervision of nine different ministries. Currently there are 811 institutions, not counting campus branches. A total of 194 are degree-granting institutions; 617 are sub-degree institutions. With regard to quality assurance (QA), the 1999 National Education Act required the established of a new system of quality assurance and assessment for higher education (Section 47). The recently established Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA) is responsible for development of criteria and methods of external evaluations (Section 49). All educational institutions are required to receive an external quality assessment at least once every five years, and the results are to be submitted to the relevant agencies and made available to the public. Educational institutions are required to prepare appropriate documentation and evidence and arrange for their personnel, governing bodies, parents and others to provide additional information at the request of ONESQA and external agencies certified by ONESQA for conducting external assessment (Section 50). Considerable progress has been made with implementation. This paper describes the activities and progress of ONESQA in terms of quality assurance for basic and higher education.
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14:10 - 14:30
6.B.3. Recent Changes - Challenges to Quality Enhancement of Higher Education in Malaysiann.
Zita Hj Mohd Fahmi
National Accreditation Board, Malaysia
Prior to 1996, the issue of quality of education was very much an internal concern of higher education institutions in Malaysia. The role of the ministry was of a regulatory nature in case of private institutions in issuance of licenses of their establishments and perhaps more concern in the case of public ones as they were funded by the government. Those involve in giving recognition to the qualifications such as the Department of Public Service and the professional bodies. The impact of liberalisation and economic recession in the mid nineties lead to mushrooming of institutions evident in the private sector. This led to the establishment of the Lembaga Akreditasi Negara (National Accreditation Board) (LAN), a statutory body, 1997. Later a Quality Assurance Department (QAD) was set up in the Ministry of Education in 2002 for the public universities. There were many factors leading to the recent changes with the establishment of the Malaysian Qualifications Agency and it includes such concern for better quality assurance system, re-evaluating the accreditation system, stakeholders' participation, quality of graduates, employability, quality of higher education, dualism, lack of a national framework, bureaucracy and more significantly to be in line with Vision 2020. In addition to these is the impact of rapid global and regional changes that required the government to address matters and strategies which affect national competitiveness in the global market. The Ministry of Higher Education was also come into being in 2004. Initial work for a qualifications framework began as early as 2002. Various models for a body to manage it were examined and finally The Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) was officially established on the 1st November 2007. It also witnessed the merging of LAN and QAD after extensive consultations with various stakeholders culminated with a National Seminar were held. It is a quality assurance body with mandate to implement the Malaysian Qualifications Framework. In brief "MQF provides the context for guided changes and improvement to the higher education system by all stakeholders. It is not just a technical process but also a social and political process". This repositioning of the quality assurance regime in the hands of MQA carries with it enormous responsibilities to further enhance the Malaysian higher education to "one of highest quality" and the major challenges ahead for the Agency is in achievement of its functions and objectives.
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