Quality assurance and accreditation at UC Gitte Duemose Senior Consultant, Dr. University of Copenhagen University Education Services Education Strategy Unit Dias 1
External quality assurance The Danish Accreditation system The Danish Accreditation Institution ACE Denmark established by law in September 2007 as an independent institution Purpose: To document relevance (labour market) and academic quality of individual academic programmes (master and bachelor programmes) 5 sets of criteria (decided politically): 1) demand for the programme, 2) research based, 3) academic profile and learning outcome, 4) structure and organisation of the programme and 5) quality assurance of the programme. 800 academic programmes have to go through the process. All new academic masters and bachelor programmes need a positive accreditation Dias 2
The Accreditation proces the workload Tons of paper 200 300 hours of work pr. documentation report Very little effect - Does not effect the quality development Bureaucratic Dias 3
The future of accreditation Present: Accreditation of individual academic programme (master, bachelor etc.) Future: Accreditation on an institutional level based on ESG High demands to the internal quality assurance system New legislation is expected in the beginning of 2012. Dias 4
External examiners (censor)- a special feature of the Danish quality assurance system Minimum 1/3 of the ECTS of an education (bachelor and master) must be assessed by both the teacher and an external examiner officially appointed by the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. External examiners are responsible that exams are consistent with the aims in programme requirements and the departmental orders. External examiners guarantee that the students get a fair and equal assessment in exams. Dias 5
The internal quality assurance at UC An institution wide policy for course evaluation was implemented in 2009 A new institution wide quality assurance policy to be implemented October 2011 Dias 6
The policy for course evaluation Standard: At a minimum all recurring courses are evaluated every second time they are run, unless major changes have been made All new courses are evaluated the first time they are run The faculty procedure must answer these questions: What s the aim of course evaluation? Why use these evaluation tools? Who is resonsible for following up? How to ensure development of teacher qualifications? Results of course evaluations are published every year in October. Dias 7
The new internal quality assurance policy Implementation at the faculties October 2011. Based on European standards and guidelines (ESG) for internal quality assurance within higher education institutions ESG: 1 Policy and procedures for quality assurance 2 Approval, monitoring and periodic review of programmes and awards 3 Assessment of students 4 Quality assurance of teaching staff 5 Learning resources and student support 6 Information systems 7 Public information Dias 8
Teaching qualifications Guidelines for teacher training programmes for assistant professors (January 2011) Guidelines for using teaching portfolios when applying for positions at associate professor and professor level (January 2011) Dias 9
Quality enhancement Strong focus on the quality enhancement of the programmes at UC in the coming strategy period Project 2011: Education at it s best Using peer review to monitor and support the implementation of the quality policies Focus on the importance of the programme managers role also a project support by Education at it s best Dias 10
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