Origin of the International Survey

We are now in the era of information explosion and it has become essential to identify important and useful information within big data. The development of Institutional Research (IR) has consequently attracted increasing attentions through the improvement of information technology.

TWAEA has commenced the project “Taiwan Institutional Research Cooperation” in 2016 to provide necessary information and services to higher education institutions for IR studies. In 2018, TWAEA joined hands with JUAA and ONESQA to implement a interregional investigation on students’ learning satisfaction in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. In 2020, TWAEA conducted the INQAAHE Funding Scheme Capacity Building Project with JUAA and ONESQA, under the topic “International Survey Project on Learning Outcomes and Satisfaction in Higher Education from Japan, Taiwan and Thailand (ISPLOS)”. In 2021, CEA VNU-HCM was invited to join the international survey.  The launch of this project represents a breakthrough in the field of institutional research.

Collaborating Agencies

Taiwan Assessment and Evaluation Association (TWAEA)
Established in 2003, TWAEA is a non-governmental and non-profit organization dedicated to the provision of evaluation services, as well as the development and promotion of evaluation knowledge and techniques. Jointly founded by senior members of Taiwan’s academia and business sectors, TWAEA is committed to provide external quality assurance for any concerned party.
On the basis of an unbiased position with objective and fair perspectives, TWAEA has built up a solid reputation in the implementation of evaluation system and has been widely recognized as a professional evaluation agency. From 2004 onwards, TWAEA has been engaged in evaluation projects commissioned by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. Along with all other higher education evaluation agencies, TWAEA was officially recognized as a certified evaluation agency since 2009.

Japan University Accreditation Association (JUAA)
JUAA is a voluntary organization established in 1947 with 46 initial member institutions which include national, local public and private universities. The mission of JUAA is to promote the qualitative improvement of higher education institutions in Japan through the voluntary efforts and mutual assistance of member institutions and to contribute for international cooperation such as educational and research activities in higher education institutions. JUAA started accrediting activities in 1951 for universities applying for full membership.
JUAA is the first Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Agency for university certified by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in 2004. JUAA currently performs Certified Evaluation and Accreditation in 13 fields.

Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA)
ONESQA was established in 2000 with the aims of developing the criteria and methods for external quality assessment for assessing educational achievements of education institutions, bearing in mind the objectives, principles and guidelines for education provision stipulated in the National Education Act. ONESQA is the recognized and standard external quality assessment agency that can reflect the quality of education, as well as provides recommendations leading to the development of quality of national education.
ONESQA’s mission includes developing of external assessment system; setting framework, direction and methods for efficient assessment attuned to the quality assurance system of educational institutions; managing training and certification of external assessors.

Center for Education Accreditation, Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City (CEA VNU-HCM)
CEA VNU-HCM was founded by the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) in 2013. It was established to accredit education institutions and programs and to take follow up actions in order to improve the quality of Vietnam education, meeting the requirements for the country development. CEA VNU-HCM is devoted to be a professional education accreditation organization, aiming at ensuring quality, effectiveness and efficiency, impartiality, and creativity in education accreditation in Vietnam, recognized by other regional and international agencies.

Specific Objectives

While most research surveys are implemented in Europe and the United States, TWAEA decides to take the lead to conduct an international survey in Asian regions in order to understand the situation of educational development in the emerging international higher education hub of Asia. The survey results shall inform HEI decision makers to take out improvements and upgrade in teaching quality accordingly.

The questionnaire will be implemented at the higher education (including vocational higher education) institutions to understand more about the perspectives of the institutions’ equipment and learning resources, faculties’ teaching, curriculum and learning, students’ career and living counseling, and comprehensive evaluation.

Project Sustainability

In order to ensure the sustainability of the project and its findings after the end of the project, the statistical report among the four regions will be sent to institutions that participate in this survey. The statistical report serves as an evidentiary basis for institutions to make strategic decisions. Furthermore, this project will be carried out continuously as scheduled, the institutions that continuously join the survey can greatly benefit from the longitudinal research.

Expected Outcomes

With further cooperation on the project, we can learn more thoroughly about how successful teaching methods and campus education are applied in different regions. From the discussion and analysis among the four regions, it allows us to identify certain blind spots and thereby to explore our horizon of creative possibilities. It gives us a chance to learn about the status of higher education in each region and leads to further cooperation among the four parties. The expected outcomes of this project are described as follow:

• Foster the operation of institutional research and implement effective and outstanding institutional management;
• Assist the management personnel of the institutions to constitute the evidentiary basis to make strategic decisions;
• Improve the institutions’ teaching quality to reach the aim of having outstanding teaching and developing distinctive characters;
• Help the institutions strengthen students’ competencies through effective management;
• Boost further research in this dynamic and challenging field with the analysis results.

Survey Procedure

The main procedure of this international survey can be shown as the following, including the content of each step. Due to the different education systems in different regions, the implementation period will be adjusted accordingly in each region.

Questionnaire Structure

This project is mainly targeted on the question items: “Facilities & Administration,” “Teaching Effectiveness,” “Learning Status,” “School Counseling” and “Self-Evaluation.” We expect to gain an insight into the learning satisfaction and feedbacks of students from four regions towards the course teaching. The outcomes can be exchanged among institutions and recommendations can be proposed to improve higher education quality. The questionnaire structure is shown in the following figure.