Challenges of an Emerging Quality Assurance Network By: Dr. Nadia Badrawi Secretary General of Arab Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education Board Member of National Quality Assurance and Accreditation Committee, Egypt Board Member of International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education Internationalization and globalization of higher education have underlined an increasingly urgent need to establish robust frameworks for quality assurance in different countries. External quality assurance and accreditation systems have been adopted in many countries. Most of theses countries are developed countries that already have established systems as well as financial and human resources. European and international networks for quality assurance have provided support to many developed countries in establishing organizations for quality assurance. In the Arab countries the situation is different: The definition of quality, the system of quality assurance or accreditation as well as the methodology, scope and function of the quality assurance bodies are diverse. While respecting this diversity, the international organizations dealing with quality assurance and accreditation such as UNESCO; the World Bank; the INQAAHE; the British Council; and the DAAD recommend a co-coordinated effort among the regional quality assurance bodies to tackle the challenges raised by the growth of quality assurance culture in higher education. The UNESCO recommendation is to sustain and strengthen the existing regional and international networks and to establish regional networks in regions that do not already have one. The idea is that these networks serve as platforms to exchange information; disseminate knowledge; increase the understanding of international developments and challenges; and improve the professional expertise of the agencies staff and quality assessors. These networks should be used to improve awareness of degree and accreditation mills and to develop monitoring and reporting systems that would lead to the identification of dubious degrees and dubious quality assurance and accreditation agencies. According to these recommendations and in addition to the support of the World Bank, there is a need to initiate a development mechanism between the Arab countries to: Exchange information about quality assurance Construct new quality assurance organizations Build up institution and academic standards Disseminate good practice in quality assurance Strengthen liaison between quality assurance bodies in the different countries The driving force behind the establishment of an Arab network was: The wish to improve quality in higher education in the Arab region
The globalization of the world and open work market place in other countries The existence of regional quality assurance networks around the world Fast emerging quality assurance organizations and regional networks The presence of an international quality assurance and accreditation network The recommendation of international organizations that deal with higher education The desire and perseverance of quality assurance experts and directors in some Arab countries to cooperate and work together to strengthen the liaison between them. The idea of establishing an Arab network was conceived in July 2004 at a conference in Cairo. Many Arab countries were invited to address issues of quality assurance in their respective countries. A round table discussion on how quality assurance bodies in the Arab States might work together took place. The brain storming produced three possible scenarios: The first was to create a network; the second to start an NGO for Quality Assurance; and the third to develop a commission for quality assurance and accreditation for Arab HEIs. A final consensus to establish an Arab network for quality assurance and accreditation was agreed upon in Abu Dhabi in 2005. The Arab Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ANQAHE) was launched on the 9th of June 2007 in Jordan and an agreement on its constitution, name and board members was approved. The ANQAHE is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization established in association with the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE). The ANQAHE works in connection with the Association of Arab Universities (AArU) AArU is a well established non-profit non-governmental organization with more than 190 HEI members in the Arab world AArU has a legal and financial identity AArU is recognized across the Arab region The mission of ANQAHE is: To ensure and strengthen the quality assurance of higher education institutions and to enhance the collaboration between similar quality assurance organizations in the Arab states as well as to develop cooperation with other regional and international quality assurance networks. The goals of ANQAHE are to support and enhance quality assurance organizations in the Arab region; to establish a mechanism of cooperation in the field of quality assurance in higher education in the Arab countries; to initiate and sustain regional and international cooperation in quality assurance in higher education; to exchange information on quality assurance in higher education; and to develop a system for capacity-building quality assurance bodies in the Arab region.
The methodology agreed upon in the constitution of the ANQAHE is: 1) Dissemination of information through the network s website, newsletters, documents, journals and books, either in paper or electronic form. 2) Reference from the databases, good practice and resources of other regional and international networks. 3) Organization of seminars, workshops and conferences on both regional and subregional levels. 4) Exchange visits for reviewers and other experts working in the field of higher education quality assurance. 5) Assisting in mutual recognition between the different quality assurance bodies in the Arab region. 6) Other appropriate means as determined by the General Council or the Board. To reach this level of achievement a number of challenges were encountered. The most important being: 1) Identification of the region The challenge was whether to identify the region according to language, geographic location or the system of education. A first option was to include all the Arabic-speaking countries that include 22 countries. A second option was to widen the scope and include the entire MENA region, adding two or three more developed countries in the field of education. It was decided that countries could be members of more than one region. This example is present in Europe where the quality assurance agencies in the 23 countries that are members of ENQA are also members in other European networks. Some of the Arabic speaking countries could be member of three different regions depending on their country s classification. Egypt for example is eligible to belong to the African, MENA or Arab regions. The final decision was to start the network with the 22 Arabic-speaking countries, but with the potential to extend to other regions in the future. 2) Small scale representation of all the countries in a given region Representation among the quality assurance bodies of the Arab countries is not high enough. Only 12 out of the 22 bodies have been engaged in the process so far and not all of these participated in all the meetings at the same time. The network s action plan will include proper engagement of the quality assurance bodies of the 22 member countries. The 22 Arab countries are: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Somali, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Underlined are those countries that have been involved up to June 2007.
3) Diversity of the nature of quality assurance in the different countries and the absence of any concept of quality assurance in many of them Five of the Arab speaking countries have semiautonomous bodies for quality assurance: Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. Other countries are due to establish semiautonomous or independent agencies for quality assurance. Most of the countries have a unit in the ministry of higher education to oversee quality assurance and accreditation. Some countries only perform quality assurance and accreditation for private, i.e. profit making, institutions while others do so for both public and private institutions. There are countries that conduct institutional quality assurance and accreditation while others are limited to program accreditation only. Some countries use imported international systems while others have developed their own national models of quality assurance. There are however some countries in the region that have not started any activities in the field of quality assurance and accreditation. This poses a real challenge when it comes to membership approval. The question lies in whether to restrict membership to quality assurance agencies that follow the international guidelines or whether a regional guideline respecting the diversity in the systems within the Arab countries should be developed. 4) Financial constraints (especially in the foundation period) Starting a network with no seed funds is difficult. To start a network and include as many of the quality assurance bodies in the different countries as possible, a fund was needed so that we could visit or invite these bodies to discuss the idea. We applied for a DGF grant from the World Bank and contacted the British Council and other regional funding agencies. We held national and international conferences to meet the relevant colleagues. The British Council funded some of the meetings and the website and we are now planning to use the World Bank grant to begin our capacity-building action plan. The presence of a financial structure was also an important issue. The decision to be affiliated with the Association of Arab Universities and use their well-established financial unit solved this problem and we reached an agreement to use their structure but open a separate bank account 5) Lack of professional quality assurance expertise We began by inviting the quality assurance unit within the ministry of higher education of each country to send a representative to participate in the foundation meeting. While in many cases we received no response whatsoever, in others the representatives were either lacking in experience or had never previously worked in quality assurance, especially those delegates from countries that do not have any established quality assurance. This motivated us to establish the Arab network and to develop a capacitybuilding action plan to improve the professional expertise of the agencies. 6) Communication deficiencies with the quality assurance bodies in different countries A lack of communication with the quality assurance bodies in the different countries posed another challenge. While some of the Arab countries quality assurance bodies have websites with the relevant names and email addresses, information is in most cases not updated and many of the emails sent were never replied to. Otherwise there is no
website at all. It therefore takes a significant amount of effort to identify the responsible colleague in each country and an even greater effort to ensure this person s position is consistently maintained. 7) Political intervention and domination of the state-owned institutions resisting competition In many Arab countries the majorities of HEIs is public and are as such owned by the state. They are regulated, dominated and financed by the ministries of higher education. The ministries of higher education fulfill the role of both service providers and evaluators. There is therefore great political influence on the institutions and on the quality assurance bodies. There is no competition between institutions on student admission, staff recruitment, and student support or quality standards. There is a lot of political intervention and resistance from higher authorities in most of the Arab countries. The private higher education institutions are also regulated and dominated by the ministries of higher education. Thus there is great political influence intervening with competition on quality assurance within higher education institutions. 8) The stature of the network: should it be governmental or independent? The majority of the 22 Arab countries do not have an independent body for quality assurance. It therefore stands to reason that if the quality assurance bodies, the higher education institutions and the network are all governmental, political influence will be very high. This prompted the question as to whether the network should be governmental or non-governmental. Should there be a formula to balance between governmental and non-governmental issues, and what should this formula be? This has been and still is a challenge to the ANQAHE. This position highlighted the need to establish an independent network. We started the Arab network as a non-governmental structure, but the members are the quality assurance bodies, of which most of them are governmental. The balance between the governmental and non-governmental bodies is an important issue that should be studied by the network. The decision to be affiliated to a nongovernmental organization that deals with higher education institutions whether private or public like the Association of Arab universities has helped in partial resolution of this challenge. 9) Emerging of multiple networks with the same name for the same region This is a rising issue. The business of quality assurance and accreditation in the region is flourishing. Both profit and non-profit organizations might have an interest in establishing networks to open a work marketplace in this field. This is a new challenge but the experience, the credibility of the structure and the activities of any network will prove its sustainability.