Presentation to INQAAHE Conference Tallinn, Estonia

May 2014

The experience of a small quality assurance agency seeking INQAAHE recognition

Tim Klassen – Director, OCQAS

Quick facts: ◦ Education in Canada is a provincial mandate and there is

no national/federal education body or authority ◦ In Ontario there are 24 colleges serving about 200

communities 22 English-language; 2 French-language

◦ Colleges established by provincial government and operate as crown agencies

◦ About 500,000 students enrolled in 700 programs per annum 200,000 full-time

300,000 part-time

◦ Full range of programs offered from basic literacy to baccalaureate degree

OCQAS – Responsible to the colleges through an

arms-length Management Board

CVS – Program – level

Quality Assurance

PQAPA – Institutional – level Quality Assurance

2002 o Provincial government mandates the development of a self-

regulatory quality assurance mechanism for colleges

2005 o Quality assurance service begins with the Credentials Validation

Service for program-level quality assurance and initial plans for the Program Quality Assurance Process Audit at the institutional level

2006 o External evaluation of service conducted by Dr. Massy

2010 o External evaluation of service conducted by J. Randall

Ontario College Quality Assurance Service (OCQAS) ◦ Committed to continuous improvement

2 external reviews in 5 years

◦ Initial self-study assessed against 3 sources – alignment Founding principles of Service

ENQA Standards for External QA Agencies

INQAAHE Guidelines of Good Practice

● Self-Study Assessment Report ●Guidelines of Good Practice – as an assessment tool

● Measured organization and performance against the GPP in preparation for external evaluation

● “They [GGP] are designed for use by EQAAs in all stages of development and as the OCQAS falls into this category [development], it is timely and correct that we evaluate our structure and operations against these Guidelines.”

● Each of the Guidelines were considered and responded to in detail and the findings were “instructive”.

● Example: Section 1 iii) Quality Assurance of EQAA

● “The EQAA has a system of continuous quality assurance of its own activities that emphasizes flexibility in response to the changing nature of higher education, the effectiveness of its operations, and its contribution toward the achievement of its objectives.

● The EQAA conducts internal self-review of its own activities, including consideration of its own effect and value.

● The EQAA is subject to external reviews at regular intervals. There is evidence that any required actions are implemented and disclosed.”

Results : ◦ Assessing our structures and operations against the GGP showed

that while we were doing well (meeting the GGPs) in some areas, there were others where we had evidence of deficits

Governance – needed work to ensure independence of operations and decisions

Resources – small, streamlined, effective and efficient

Quality Assurance – commitment to continuous improvement evident

Reporting Public Information - all relevant information on publicly available website

Relationships with HE institutions – strength area

Requirements for Institutional performance – information is clear, available and regularly up-dated as part of commitment to CI

Requirements for institutional self-evaluation and reporting – as above

Evaluation of the HE institutions; decisions and appeals – strength area; only 1 appeal heard in over 40 quality audits

Collaboration – area strength with many partners in place

Transnational / cross-border activity - an area of continued and continuing development

Randall Report – Recommendations and Response ◦ Some changes to quality criteria including the addition

of one criterion ◦ Quality Criteria became Quality Standards ◦ Changes to composition of Management Board to

include external member and student voice ◦ Utilize international partners in monitoring of “off -shore

program delivery” ◦ Application to INQAAHE for recognition as meeting GGP ◦ Recognition received December 2011 ◦ Started formal transition from Academic Audits to

Accreditation

The Ontario College Quality Assurance Service

www.ocqas.org

Tim Klassen, Director

20 Bay Street, Suite 1600

Toronto Ontario Canada

M5J 2N8

647-258-7682 – office

416-270-3093 - mobile