Ensuring High Quality Education for Today and the Future
By nature, higher education involves constant assessment of curricula, goals and learning outcomes. In order to ensure students receive the highest quality education with given resources, Svay Rieng University is developing its Quality Assurance standards and schedule. SRU’s initiative is supported by the Erasmus+ programme, “Strengthening Quality Assurance in Cambodian Higher Education”, or SICA.
Through a collection of work packages, SICA assists the university with creating QA benchmarks, establishing a schedule for regular QA assessments, improving financial and technical reporting practices, and initiating regular evaluations at the program level.
SRU fulfils and exceeds the benchmarks required by the Accreditation Committee of Cambodia and Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, with full accreditation. However, the university strives to maintain the highest standards of education possible given its resources, and SICA has assisted the university in achieving these goals. There is still room for improvement, but the university has taken steps toward improving its QA processes, most recently establishing a Quality Assurance office at the university, which will continue to assess SRU’s practices beyond the lifespan of the SICA programme.
OBJECTIVE
SICA built in Cambodian Higher Education is to response to enhancing qualified education to all, especially higher institution to develop qualified human resources for the growth. It builds capacity of both teaching staff and non-teaching staff through exchange programs—inbound and outbound students. It, eventually, provides the university for standardized quality assurance system, recognized locally and internationally.
GOAL
The goal is to raise awareness on the importance of quality assurance to all teaching and non-teaching staff and students at Svay Rieng University, to disseminate the results of the project to wider community, to achieve the visibility of SICA project and its results, to establish links and cooperation with relevant stakeholders at all levels both local and international levels, and to ensure the best coordination and optimal use of project resources and results during and beyond the lifetime of the project.
WORK PACKAGE
SICA is built upon 7 interrelated work packages: (1) Benchmarking QA practices and policies, (2) Capacity building, (3) Modernization of QA offices, (4) Assessment & Strategic planning, (5) Raising awareness, (6) Quality control & monitoring, and (7) Project management.
EXPECTED RESULTS
SICA is drawn with plenty of results within each package. Work Package 1: Benchmarking QA practices and policies provides 180 hard copies of a comprehensive report on quality assurance practice with European value, recommendations, and good practices to be printed in good quality; and enhanced understanding and insight of the current and future trends of their QA practices for the HEIs and countries by analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Work Package 2: Capacity building identifies 12 internal workshops conducted with training materials applied the local context, 90 staff attended training (2 trainings x 15 staff x 6 unis), agenda, list of participants, feedback forms, activity reports; and staff skill upgraded, knowledge transferred and exchanged, enhanced culture and awareness of QA in HEIs, and provoke discussion and changes at departmental/faculty/institutional level. Work Package 3: Modernization of QA offices illustrates 6 websites with updated information of QA activities and visibility of QA offices enhanced to internal and external stakeholders, promoting culture of quality assurance. Work Package 4: Assessment & Strategic planning elaborates 6 external assessments or visits conducted in 6 Cambodian HEIs, 6 reports on external assessments with recommendations, 6 improvement plans, and 6 QA strategic plans. Work Package 5: Raising Awareness determines project website, logo, leaflets, posters, template or presentation; project dissemination plan; 2 international conferences at least 100 participants each; and 24 campus campaigns and roundtables organized. Work Package 6: Quality control demonstrates quality plan, questionnaires and feedback forms, and 1 report per year for project evaluation. And work package 7: Project management shows 10-member management board established by M2, consortium meetings—agenda, minutes, list of participants; online management platform; reporting template—financial and technical; 6 internal reports from each partner; 2 reports to donor; and financial audits.
For more information about SRU’s Quality Assurance initiatives, please contact Mr. HEM Suntrakwadh.
Project Documents:
Guideline_for_Internal_Quality_Assessment_SICA
More information about the SICA programme can be found: http://www.sica-project.eu/
Related pages in the old website: http://archive.sru.edu.kh/?page=detail&menu1=226&menu2=243&article=243&lg=en
