Report on present status of the quality assurance system at University of Split

1. Report on present status of the quality assurance system at University of Split Željko Dujić, MD, PhD Vice rector for science and international affaires University of Split, Croatia

2. 1. Historical background of institutional quality assurance

3. - the University of Split (Uni Split) was officially established in 1974   - currently around 22 000 university and vocational students are studying at University of Split   - the University of Split is in the process of building the University Campus by 2007-8 - implementation of the reforms in higher education included in the Higher Education Act at Uni Split were delayed by abrupt increase in number of vocational students by fusion with former Politechnic of Split in 2003

4. 6 - The most important recent development in the short history of the University of Split is the establishment of the first University campus in Croatia - Within next three to four years, most faculties anddepartments willmove to the new location with more than 60.000 m2 of newly built space - The University of Split is still composed of legally independent entities (faculties), but by the end of 2007, functionally integrated University should be created - The realisation of the new campus project will facilitate this process

8. Tasks of University Center for Quality Assessment (CQA) should be: Organization of the University network for QA a) organisation of the institutional centers for QA within University, b) education of the institutional QA centers staff, c) introduction of a new student information system, d) education of professors and students, e) improvement of the public awareness of the QA process at University,

9. f) research quality should be evaluated by use of differentperformance indicators such as: 1. proportion of teachers actively engaged in research, 2. doctoral student/teacher ratio, 3. research funding/teacher ratio, 4. the number of proportion of full-time researchers, 5. the average research contract grant per teacher and 6. doctorate/teacher ratio, publication/teacher ratio, citation index.

10. 2. Inauguration of the dynamic quality cycle a)determination of the quality indicators, b) development of the self-evaluation procedures and organization of the external review, c) defining strategic goals to improve quality at University, d) research of the student rate of study progress, e) research of employment after graduation, f) feed-back from the employers and g) students questionnaires about professors.

11. 3. Creation of professors' portfolios a) results of the students questionnaire, b) rate of success at exams, c) learning outcome (joint exams), d) evidences for teaching improvements, e) introduction to e-learning methods, f)  involvement in life-long learning seminars and g) self-evaluation.

12. Tasks of Institutional CQA should be: 1. Creation of professors' portfolios 2. Evaluation procedures and creation of University network of CQA 3. Influence on institutional policies (strategic scientific and educational mission)

13. 2. Perceived needs and strategic approachesto quality assurance system at theinstitution

14. - Uni Split is in the first stages of the reform process towards functionally integrated Uni, - there is a strong commitment amongst senior management to work towards achieving the reform objectives which will are set in the law, - University Statute included establishment of the University CQA as one of the main cornerstones of the new organization at University, - University CQA coordinators for teaching (Snježana Tomić) and research (Ivan Slapničar) have been elected (2004), - Full time administrator will be employed during this year as a start of this process

15. -A permanent Teacher Support Unit should be established at the University level - All teaching staff should be trained and retrained on a regular basis, especially professors poorly evaluated by students.

16. - this should help in the openness of the University to their surrounding local environment, - successful evaluation of teaching at University would raise the status of teaching in the wider academic community, - in the assessment procedure of research and teaching it is important to link results of the evaluation with clear benefits with future distribution of resources (finances, human, space, establishment of departments, etc)

17. 3. Implementation of quality assurance system at the institution

18. - the only faculty at the moment who has quality control (student questionnaire) for last six years is the Faculty of Medicine, together with other quality indicators (quality of enroling students and students progress, questionnaire about skills and competences, follow-up after graduation, etc) - other faculties do not have this kind of quality control on the regular basis, although trend is changing - CQA office should be created and staffed with trained personnel to ensure the smooth application of the evaluation procedures (in process)

19. - CQA will organize a collection and production of necessary materials, language revision and translation, provison of instructions for the faculties and depts, site visits of national and international external experts, collection and analysis of the results of the evaluation procedure and finally, disseminate the information.

20. 4. Foreseen trends in development of quality assurance system

21. - in the international higher educational sector there is an increasing trend to rank Universities - it is of the interest for each regional or international University to know how its degrees and research compare with other institutions in Europe - the whole University should take an active initiative in evaluation procedures and in definition of the evaluation criteria - evaluation procedures should include research as well as teaching activities

22. - demand on creating innovative and more efficient academic programmes and studies is present in any European country - the culture of quality assurance system should become part of the life of every department and university and should include academic and administrative staff and students