QUALITY ASSURANCE

POLICY STATEMENT

Mountville International University College is committed to pursuing a quality culture that provides opportunities for all members of the University community and external stakeholders to embrace quality and implement quality at all levels. The policy on quality assurance shall encompass planning, implementation, monitoring and assessment of all academic and relevant non-academic programs. The policy protects the standards and integrity of awarded qualifications. The policy is comprehensive and covers: Development, design and structure of courses; Program approval, monitoring and review; Program modification; External examining; Student admissions; Examination Boards; Assessment policy; Research; Ethics policy; and Conferment of degrees.

QUALITY ASSURANCE POLICY IMPERATIVES

The quality assurance policy imperative shall seek the following:

(a) All faculty study programs will aim at educating graduates to a high international standard;

(b) Study programs will be research-based and content will be based on international research;

(c) Quality assurance culture will be maintained and developed by all students, faculty and staff who will seek to continuously improve on study programs;

(d) Academic content and planning of study programs are scheduled in a way that ensures timely delivery and completion;

(e) Faculty will develop programs in close collaboration with stakeholders in industry, relevant communities, relevant government agencies and regulatory authorities and employers;

(f) The study environment will be made conducive to guarantee effective, modern and motivating learning; and

(g) Achieve a good balance of national standards and international standards in terms of lecturers, students and the labor market.

APPLICATION OF POLICY

The University is committed to empowering all stakeholders to participate in the maintenance and improvement of a robust fit-for- purpose quality assurance system. Students, faculty, staff and external stakeholders are all pivotal actors in the University’s quality assurance system.

QUALITY ASSURANCE FOCUS AND FACULTY

All Faculties shall adopt a comprehensive approach to internal quality assurance, embracing the concepts of process quality and learning quality. Process quality will focus on processes and procedures that assure quality of programs in terms of how they are run and their compliance to approved standards, laws and regulations. It will ensure that programs are delivered in a structured and systematic manner and assures the quality of teaching and learning. It also ensures that lecturers and administrators comply with guidelines for achieving set targets of the Univeristy. Learning quality will emphasize concerns of lecturers and students in teaching situations or in situations of imparting knowledge, where the relationship between the lecturer’s professionalism and the student’s motivation to learn and acquire intellectual capacity is strengthened. Consistent evaluation approaches of effective teaching will be adopted through student evaluations to show degree of fulfilment of learning objectives and learning outcomes. In addition to evaluations and examinations, the policy will also ensure that competencies of lecturers are improved through training and commitment to self-development. Training and learning infrastructure will be modernized and upgraded on continuous basis to support technology application and innovation.

QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEM

The University shall establish a quality assurance system that ensures that content of the faculty’s study programs reflect society’s needs with extensive knowledge and skills in areas such as policy analysis, problem solving methods and approaches, research application and entrepreneurship development. The policy further ensures that faculty’s study programs produce graduates who are ready for the labor market, are professional and have research competencies based on the latest theory and practice knowledge. The quality assurance system is structured with multiple inter-dependent players with much of the work being accomplished by committees for teaching and counseling and administrative units of faculty providing administrative services in areas such as information management and conducive teaching and learning environment.

QUALITY CULTURE

Members of the University community including lecturers, students and administrative staff will be encouraged to take personal responsibility for ensuring that study programs and teaching meet the highest quality standards of the National Accreditation Board. The specific quality assurance tasks assigned to individual members are defined as part of their job descriptions and job specifications. Additionally, content of teaching is designed to achieve critical thinking by students and support their active role in quality assurance. This ensures that quality culture is mainstreamed into the academic activities of both the lecturer and student throughout the duration of the course.

QUALITY ASSURANCE AND RESEARCH BASED EDUCATION

Faculties of the University will ensure that lecturers are researchers, so they can deliver research-based education and training to students. This will take account of specific skills and competencies needed to teach different subjects including those requiring practical experience and so will ensure robust evaluation of teaching qualifications needed to achieve the best quality learning. Students will be given direct access to participate in research activities including sourcing critical studies and research projects related to bachelor projects and master’s theses.

FACULTY QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEM

All faculties will develop quality assurance systems consistent with the University quality assurance policy. The systems will include action plans and procedures and guidelines to implement them. Content of quality assurance plans will be mainstreamed in the roles and functions of individual staff, committees and boards (including study boards) in the faculty. The systems will also embed external quality assurance arrangements which will be part of the annual cycles for revision of curricular, qualifications and competencies.

QUALITY ASSURANCE AND ASSESSMENT OF STUDENTS

The policy emphasizes the use of published data and procedures for assessing students in examinations as one of the major criteria. The procedures will ensure that lecturers, students and administrative staff follow approved and published rules and are adequately informed of examination related activities and issues regarding qualifications, curricula, competency goals, the role of external examiners, grading instructions, schedule for re-sits and grievance management procedures.

QUALITY ASSURANCE OF LECTURERS

The policy emphasizes availability of essential and up-to-date teaching competencies and qualifications. The procedures will ensure that teaching is provided by active researchers involved in teaching. Teaching portfolios will be up-to-date and used for recruitment, promotion and development of lecturers, and student evaluations of teaching will be applied to determining competency needs of individual lecturers. Additional measures will be employed to monitor lecturers teaching competencies through performance reviews and theory practice aspects of courses.

QUALITY ASSURANCE AND EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE

The policy provides assurance that adequate quality administrative support and learning resources are available and accessible on timely basis. The administrative quality assurance system will cover support functions necessary for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of teaching, teaching infrastructure and conducive learning environment. The procedures ensure that student administrative support functions are compliant with international, national and University standards and regulations and that teaching activities are implemented as planned, based on curricula, teaching facilities including lecture halls and equipment are adequate and regularly evaluated and improved when necessary, and the environment for learning is stimulating and congenial.

Management and Public Information

The policy elaborates the sources, types and channels of information that support the quality assurance system especially study boards and faculty management. The focus of information system relates to types of data that need to be collected, source generating the data and timelines for ensuring availability as per the cycle for developing and review of study programs. The procedures for achieving quality assurance objectives ensures that management information is readily available to study boards and faculty management to make informed decisions on teaching and study programs. The official University website provides adequate information on teaching and learning, programs, research, communication, student admission and support services, ethics, school infrastructure, administrative and management policies and issues of finance. The University will develop a ’Quality Assurance Bulletin’ which will be published quarterly to provide information on quality assurance progress, improvements and innovations in academic, research and management.

REVISION OF THIS POLICY

This policy will be reviewed from time to time to ensure it is always consistent with national and international quality standards for higher education and training.

CONCLUSION

The University’s policy on
quality assurance is comprehensive and embeds quality assurance culture in all
spheres of academic life. It covers academic and extra-curricular activities
from admission of learners through their progression and certification. Quality
assurance also permeates the entire program development, implementation
including monitoring, evaluation, feedback and review cycle. The policy
provides for a strong qualification and competency enhancement system for
lecturers, professional development for staff, quality administrative support services,
and conducive teaching and learning infrastructure for faculty and students.