THE INTERNAL Q UALITY A SSURANCE

1. THE INTERNAL QUALITY ASSURANCE -Romanian’s standards and guidelines-

2. National legislation • Law No. 75 / July, 12th 2005, that regulates quality assurance in education; • Secondary legislation:OMEdC (ministerial orders) specific to the pre-university / higher education system.

3. Education refers to... • The organization providing education is a learning institution, a non-governmental organization or a private society which runs activities or legally authorized programs of initial and ongoing training, according to its status. • Study programs represent the actual side of educational offers in an organization providing education. • The direct beneficiaries of education are students, as well as adults attending a specific learning program; • The indirect beneficiaries of education are employers, employees, the families of direct beneficiaries and the whole society. • The national frame of professional qualification includes, progressively and correlatively, degrees, diplomas or study certificates which attest the different levels of qualification, as shown by the accomplishments in learning. The national frame of qualifications is comparable to and compatible with its European equivalent.

4. Specific concepts of the QA system in Romania • The quality of educationis the total number of features of a study program and of its provider, through which the beneficiaries’ expectations, as well as quality standards are assured. • The assessment of educationalquality is constituted by the multi-criteria based examination of the extent to which an organization providing education and its program reach the reference standards. • When quality assessment is supplied by the same organization providing education, it turns into aninternal assessment. • When quality assessment is supplied by a national or international agency, it turns into anexternal assessment.

5. Quality assurance in education… • Quality assurance is realized through a set of actions aiming at developing the institutional ability to establish, plan and implement study programs which help beneficiaries confide in the fact that the organization providing education achieves all quality standards. • Quality assurance reflects the ability of an organization providing education to offer learning programs, according to the asserted standards and it is thus promoted so as to lead to the ongoing improvement of educational quality. • The improvement of educational quality requires ongoing assessment, analysis and corrective action from the organization providing education, based on selecting and adapting the most suitable procedures, as well as on the selection and implementation of the most relevant reference standards.

6. Institutional accreditation… • The accreditation of institutions providing education and of their study programs is part of quality assurance. • Accreditation is the means of quality assurance that certifies following predetermined standards, so that the organizations providing education and their study programs may be established and function. • In terms of accreditation, the quality of education represents a permanent priority of each and any institution, organization or learning unit, as well as of its employees.

7. QA Guidelines • The guidelines supported by the Ministry of Education and Research and the specific strategies for their implementation contribute to the ongoing assessment, assurance, control and improvement of quality in education. • Funding for QA in educationcomesfrom public sources, particularly on the basis of quality. • Learning institutions must function so as to satisfy public trust through the quality of their activities, while education becomes a public good. • The guidelines of quality assurance for Romanian education are permanently correlated to the actions supported at the European and world level.

8. Goals of the QA system • The improvement of learning quality, by means of establishing and implementing institutional and procedural mechanisms of quality assurance, assessment, control and improvement. • The development and dissemination of systematic, coherent, plausible and publicly accessible information on the quality of education, offered by the different organizations operating on the Romanian educational market. • Protection for education beneficiaries. • Developing a tradition of quality at the level of the organization providing education. • Building the basis for policies and strategies in education, for each and any segment.

9. Components of the Quality Assurance methodology regarding education • Criteria – refer to a grounding organizational and functioning aspect of an organization providing education; • Standards and reference standards – a standard represents the description of requirements established in terms of rules or results that define the minimum compulsory level at which an activity in education may be accomplished; • Performance indicators – a performance indicator represents a measurement tool of the degree in which an activity of a given organization providing education is accomplished according to standards or reference; • Qualification – it is the result of learning, obtained after having followed and completed a university or professional study program.

10. QA Processes Quality in education is assured through the following processes: • The planning and concrete realization of the expected results of learning; • Monitoring results; • Internal assessment of results; • External assessment of results; • The ongoing improvement of results in education. The components and processes of quality assurance and the relationships between them differ according to the following: • The learning or qualification level, whichever the case may be; • The type of organization that provides education; • The type of study program.

11. The external assessment of educational Quality • Assessment of the institutional ability of the organization providing education. • Assessment of the educational efficiency of the organization providing education. • Assessment of quality management at the institutional level. • Assessment of the quality of offered study programs. • Assessment of the accordance between the internal evaluation and the real situation. • Comparative trans-institutional assessment of the same type of study program offered by different organizations providing education.

12. ARACIS – ARACIP • In order to undertake an external assessment of quality, two agencies are established: Agenţia Română de Asigurare a Calităţii în învăţământul Superior (The Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education), ARACIS, and Agenţia Română de Asigurare a Calităţii în învăţământul Preuniversitar (The Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Pre-University Education), ARACIP. ARACIS is an independent public institution, of national interest, which possesses juridical personality and its own budget. Its location, internal structure and functioning rules and regulations are established by the Government, as ARACIS suggested. • ARACIS is a self-financing institution.

13. Accreditation • Any private, public or juridical person, interested in providing education, must comply with the process of assessment and accreditation, according to existing laws, before starting its activity. • Accreditation requires two stages in a row: • the temporary authorization of functioning, which represents the establishment document and confers the right to carry on the educational process; • accreditation, which aside from the rights mentioned above also give the right to emit diplomas, certificates or other study papers that are recognized by the Ministry of Education and Research and to organize a graduation exam, depending on the case.

14. The internal assessment of quality – Quality Assurance at institutional level • At the level of each organization providing education in Romania,a commission for quality assessment and assurance is established. • The organization providing education develops and adopts the strategy and functioning rules of the commission for quality assessment and assurance. • The organization’s leader is directly responsible for the quality of provided education. • The commission for quality assessment and assurance is made of 3 to 9 members. Its operational management is assured by the organization’s leader or by a designated coordinator.

15. The internal Quality Assurance • After having obtained the temporary functioning authorization, the organization that provides education implements the mechanism of internal quality assurance and writes reports on the internal assessment of educational quality which are sent each year to ARACIS • After having received the accreditation, the annual reports of internal quality assessment are sent to ARACIS, answering the agency request or its own initiative. It then asks for a new external assessment.

16. INSIGHT INTO QA INSTITUTIONAL PROCCESSES SELF EVALUATION DIAGNOSTIC, COMMUNICATION high GOVERNANCE / STRATEGY Level of use QUALITY CULTURE OUTPUTS / REPORTS low Level of implementation low high

17. Quality culture • External environment • Socio-economic factors • Educational policies • Internal quality culture depend on the operating methods in the institution  Long-term policies  Cooperative efforts and dialogue  Innovation  Identity  Culture of reflection

18. Self - evaluation • self-evaluation is an institutional political tool • It reveals a picture of the institution: values,ways of governance, visions of its mission • It reflects the institutional operating methods of the institution: • The institution pays attention to governance,discussion, strategic policies: QA is a help

19. Reflections… • Primary responsibility of quality lies withinstitution ≠ sole responsibility of the institution • Links quality assurance - self-evaluation • A good self-evaluation does not automatically meana high level of internal quality culture… • Strategy for QA or strategy before QA? • Is it possible to enhance Quality culture beforeadopting a strategy in the institution ?

20. Reflections… • Transparency vs self-evaluation • Shall HEIs reveal everything in a written report? • Does self-evaluation reveal the reality of an institution? • Is self-evaluation capable of addressing everychallenges met by the institutions?

21. Thank You very much for your attention ! Prof.univ.dr. Romita IUCU Vice Rector, University of Bucharest Prof.univ.dr. Magdalena Platis Dean, Faculty of Administration