516935-TEMPUS-1-2011-1-FITEMPUS-SMGR

"Towards Trust in Quality Assurance Systems (TRUST)"

Project description:

The project "Towards Trust in Quality Assurance Systems" will provide a unified transparent framework for the quality assurance of the Ukrainian higher education system which is in line with the common European academic culture and supports both the national reform of higher education and integration of Ukraine into the European Education Area.

The developed framework will build trust between all QA players and society by ensuring that all quality assurance procedures will be based on credible, transparent and relevant sources of information and explainable decision-making techniques documented in a common portal. The holistic multilayer framework based on the knowledge triangle: "education-research-innovation" will be implemented as a result of study and analysis of national and best European trends, priorities and cultures in higher education quality assurance. Impact of each dimension of the knowledge triangle on QAS will be taken into consideration and the most independent and therefore credible sources from each dimension will be included into the system of quality criteria. The developed framework will be supported by flexible and powerful instrument - Portal providing a set of solutions that enable, support and automate the activities, information flows and transactions within the ecosystem of individuals, HEIs, QA organizations, exchanging information. The core system will be extended with mechanisms supporting development of flexible multidimensional and multicontextual quality indicators. This will enable each HEI or national QA organization to develop own appropriate QA strategies, HEI evaluations, rankings, etc. All the results will be piloted and widely disseminated. The personnel in HEIs and all key QA organizations will be trained. National regulations and laws will be formulated to implement the procedures/processes/solutions developed within the project which is officially confirmed by Parliament Committee on Science and Education of Ukraine.

Duration:

15 October 2011 - 14 April 2015

Specific and wider objectives:

to support the reforms of Ukrainian HE by introducing a common, innovative, policy neutral, QA framework and supporting Ecosystem for this framework that enables mutual understanding, trust between different national and international QA actors/decision makers, and also will guarantee trusted decisions in QA process.

- To provide organizational, information and technical support of the context-aware QA system of HE based on the knowledge triangle: education-research-innovation.

- To provide a formal, unified QA framework (comprehensive, transparent, unbiased and open for society) to be shared by all HEIs, QA organisations and stakeholders;

- To provide a Portal which will host the Ecosystem and will provide support for different existing/new QA processes/systems; - trained personnel in HEIs and all key QA organizations.

- To develop measures aimed to introduce the culture of the transparent and visible quality assurance for wide society and using of results of new QA procedures in practice of innovation-oriented universities.

- To train key QA actors.

Tempus grant amount:

791141,733 Euro

Expected project outcomes:

I. Unified, formal and flexible quality assurance framework for Ukrainian HEIs

II. National quality assurance Portal based on shared and formal framework

III. Developed, approved and adopted the new quality assurance practices with implemented training scheme

Project Workplan