The Importance of Quality Assurance in Higher Education

Sarosh holds a master’s degree and a PMI-Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA) certification, and has more than 18 years of experience in leadership, quality assurance, strategic planning, project management and data analysis and reporting.

  Education   Quality  

Education is declared a fundamental human right under Article 6 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so offering proper learning and development opportunities and resources to citizens is among the main responsibilities of any country, state or society.

Like any other industry, the education sector is administered and governed by certain policies, procedures and guidelines that lay out the minimum requirements of quality and performance for students, teachers, administrators, parents and the community at large.

The sector is regulated by various agencies so that quality assurance is managed and monitored through the implementation of these accreditation standards and guidelines. In higher education, accreditation is a key project with tight deadlines, thorough resource allocation, and lots of document preparation and submission.

Quality assurance in higher education is twofold:

• External, which is mandatory to operate as an educational institution and granted by a regulatory body
• Internal, which refers to the quality assurance system and procedures adopted by the institution for continuous improvement. All QA activities are cyclical and periodic.

A government body (ministry, council, etc.) typically acts as policy maker at the national level, delegating its administrative and monitoring role to an agency or office—which prescribes standards …

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