Officials from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and Assessor Team Visit UC to Assess the Actual Situation and Implementation of the National Standards for Accreditation of Higher Education Institutions
I. Introduction
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) assigned an assessor team to assess the actual situation and implementation of the National Standards for Accreditation of Higher Education Institutions at the University of Cambodia from 10 to 19 August 2015. The result of this assessment is used only for internal information, and as a basis for decision-making on improving the accreditation standards of higher education institutions for quality assessment in 2016.
According to the official regulations, the results of this assessment are not to be used for accrediting or ranking of the higher education institutions. A leading team, consisting of 10 members from MoEYS, and the General Secretariat of the Accreditation Committee of Cambodia (ACC) were assigned to assess the University of Cambodia.
II. Objectives of Assessment
- Pilot assessment to be used as internal information, to improve the education standards and pro-cedures.
- Pilot assessment to be used to improve the accreditation standards and procedures for higher education institutions.
The objective of this assessment was to observe the actual situation and implementation of the National Standards for Accreditation of Higher Education Institutions in response to request letter no. 3470 Mo-EYS, ACC, dated on 7 August 2015. The result of the assessment will be used as internal information, and as the basis for the improvement of standards and procedures for higher education institution accreditation and assessment in 2016.
III. Methodology and Process of Assessment
- Phase 1: The assessors study the self-assessment report, review supporting documents, and seek for some general information from the management team. The study of the self-assessment report, and the supporting documents takes 4 days (10 - 13 August 2015).
- Phase 2: The assessors conduct a site visit at the University of Cambodia, which consists of interviewing, dialoguing and observing to check the accuracy of the results reported in the self-assessment report, and actual job implementation at the university. The site visit and asssessment took half a day (morning of 14 August 2015) and focused on:
- Visiting classrooms, offices, faculty lounge, language lab, computer lab, library, first aid room, and canteen.
- Interviewing staff from different offices and labs regarding general information about the University.
- Interviewing student representatives from various fields of study and degree level.
- Interviewing faculty member representatives from each college and degree level.
- Briefing on each standard.
- Phase 3: The assessors sumed up the results, and prepared a presentation to the university on the strengths, weaknesses and recommendations for each standard. The summing up of the prelimi-nary report of the assessment is based on the synthesis of the preliminary results of individual as-sessors, and the preparation of a common preliminary report. The summing up of the preliminary results, and giving the presentation took 2 days (17-18 August 2015).
By: Mr. Min Seiha
