INTERNATIONAL CONNECTION: ACCREDITATION OF DEGREE-GRANTING PROGRAMS PROJECT

2018-06-28

Since Taiwan Assessment and Evaluation Association (TWAEA) and the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA) signed a memorandum in 2012, we have actively exchanged closely between the two sides, and initiated "International Joint Accreditation” in order to meet the urgent needs of our higher education for international development. It also complies with the Ministry of Education's "Promotion on Internationalization of Higher Education" and "Higher Education Sprout Project" to comprehensively improve the quality of universities and strengthen their international competitiveness. On 22nd of Jun., 2018, three experts from ONESQA were invited to act as international observers for the "Accreditation of Degree-granting Programs Project” in Chang Gung University of Science and Technology. The differences of the accreditation implementation in diverse countries will be learned for continuous improvement and for the promotion of the assessment development knowledge and technics through this practice.

Ministry of Education suspended the evaluation of colleges and universities in 2017, which meant that the quality assurance mechanism of higher education in Taiwan has changed from "government-oriented" to "voluntary" evaluation, to be decided by institutions themselves. “Accreditation of Degree-granting Programs Project” is planned by TWAEA to assist colleges and universities to establish quality improvement mechanisms to strengthen their advantages and characteristics.

The accreditation experts from ONESQA were impressed with our “pragmatic and practical institution operation” and “close industry-academia cooperation” after their on-site visit to Chang Gung University of Science and Technology; moreover, they learned more about TWAEA’s core spirit of the "Accreditation of Degree-granting Programs Project", which is "Assisting institutions to develop characteristics, to improve education quality, and to establish self-improvement mechanisms". The international experts further noticed that when the accreditation team visited the institution, they not only made good suggestions for the professional improvement of teaching facilities but also got along very well with the staff and faculties, these are great helps to the institution’s future development. Moreover, the accreditation team had specially required having the instructor’s permission observe the class and it meant that “respect and trust” played a key factor in evaluation. In addition to the accreditation team’s active interaction and communication with the accreditation unit, internal discussions for the provision of the opinions based on the core spirit of "assisting institutions to develop characteristics, to improve education quality, and to establish self-improvement mechanisms" are the main goals for the team members.

The development of international evaluation is paying more and more attentions to its positive impacts and the spirit of it is indeed in line with "Accreditation of Degree-granting Programs Project”. What we want to emphasize is that accreditation is only a starting point and affirmation for institution, it is expected that the institution will continue to develop its self-characteristics, make sustainable progress towards mission and goals, and pursue self-excellence in order to gain a place in the highly competitive higher education.

TWAEA has worked hard to promote the professional knowledge and skill related to accreditation and also the provision of accreditation services. To enhance the quality in higher education is always the mission of TWAEA. In recent years, TWAEA not only has started to join the members of the international accreditation organizations, but also worked closely with professional associations in Japan, Thailand, Europe, Russia, New Zealand, Croatia, Hong Kong and Macau for further cooperation.