More support for state and private universities from the AHEAD project
View(s):Results Area 2 of the Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development (AHEAD) Operation recognises the importance of strengthening systems in the state and non-state universities and therefore supports the Quality Assurance (QA) process and the Sri Lankan Qualifications Framework (SLQF).
The quality of the state universities is monitored and reviewed by the Quality Assurance Council (QAC), which functions under the university Grants Commission (UGC). It is expected that all the state universities will be subjected to institutional review within the period 2017-2021 and 10 universities have already completed their institutional reviews.
It is also expected that review reports will be published on the QA website and universities will draft and implement action plans based on the observations of the expert panel of reviewers. To ensure objectivity and alignment with international standards, during the years 2018 and 2019, AHEAD funded the visit of international QAC higher education experts who were part of the six-member panels that conducted the reviews in various universities.
AHEAD is currently supporting the development and implementation of QA guidelines for postgraduate education. A new postgraduate programme review manual and guidelines for review are being prepared and these will be immensely beneficial to ensure the maintenance of quality of postgraduate programmes conducted in state universities across the country. Currently, over 1000 postgraduate programmes are being implemented in the state universities.
At present, there are 40-45 External Degree Programmes (EDPs) also in operation across the various universities. The QAC’s initiative of publishing 300 copies of the manual in use to monitor the quality of these EDPs is also being supported by AHEAD. AHEAD also supports the QAC’s monitoring of the quality of the Internal Quality Assurance Units (IQAUs) of the state universities through a score-card system.
Moreover, AHEAD also supports several initiatives to strengthen the SLQF process which was developed and published in 2012 and updated in 2015, and is currently being implemented throughout the system. The SLQF manual was reviewed and updated in the light of new developments and the views of various stakeholders. This ensures that new and existing study programmes are designed and strengthened in keeping with current international trends. At present the SLQF manual is being translated into Sinhala and Tamil.
(Tharushi Weerasinghe)