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The External Evaluation
Team
The Council nominates and appoints the members of the
external evaluation team; there is no say by the people
being assessed. The committee is a mixed committee: academics
and other experts outside academia. There is no formal
training of the potential members. The members meet beforehand
and get instructions about what is expected from the team.
The evaluation team reports to the Council. Results
of the team visit and recommendations are discussed with
HEI before reporting to the Council. The external evaluation
team is responsible for the content of the report and
the report is published without any change of the content.
Sometimes, the Council takes an initiative to demand clarifications
from the evaluation team if needed. The reports are normally
made public, but not widely distributed. In consultation
with HEI, the report might be public or some parts of
the report can be classified as confidential.
Activities of the Council at Program Level
The activities of the Council at program level concern
the assessment of educational activities. The program
assessment is followed by a formal accreditation decision.
The main purpose is continuous improvement/enhancement
of a program, accreditation, accountability, benchmarking
and providing information.
Accreditation of academic programs (as distinct from
accrediting institutions) is at its initial stage and
preparation activities started in January, 2002. During
the initial phase the commission on development of theoretical
and methodological framework for academic program accreditation
was established, 4 members of the NCHEA participated in
study tour on program accreditation to Hong Kong, the
comparative analysis of activities at program level of
10 foreign countries' quality agencies was carried out
and a couple of conferences on particular issues of program
accreditation was held among the representatives of HEIs,
professional associations, members and experts of the
NCHEA. The Council is running a project on "Program
Accreditation of Higher Education Institutions'. The projects
on evaluation of particular programs started at some of
the institutionally accredited HEIs in September, 2002.
The Council developed the preliminary requirements, criteria
for program evaluation and general guidelines for self-evaluation.
These documents are distributed as working drafts to the
concerned HEIs. The instructions and guidelines for preparation
to the projects are also distributed to the institutions
in written form.
Criteria for evaluation
The standards or criteria for accreditation of higher
education institutions are formulated by the NCHEA. The
criteria for program evaluation are developed by Professional
Associations which comprise of the members of NCHEA, experts,
government/ministry representatives, members of professional
bodies and industry representatives.
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