THEQC Organizes Meetings on Integrated Quality Management Practices

On July 24 and 25, 2018, two meetings with the attendance of 408 rectors, vice rectors and officials in charge of quality from 189 universities were held in the Council of Higher Education (CoHE) Conference Hall. The THEQC President Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Elmas, the THEQC Vice President Prof. Dr. Tuncay Döğeroğlu and the THEQC members attended the meetings along with the representatives of higher education institutions.

After delivering a keynote speech, Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Elmas made a presentation entitled “Evaluation, Accreditation and Quality Processes in Higher Education”, in which he stressed that the aim of the meeting is to comprehend the Quality Assurance Management, while enabling higher education institutions to share their experiences on the subject and contributing to the establishment of an integrated management system that will facilitate the quality efforts in universities. He underlined that it is essential for universities to formulate their internal evaluations, accreditation, quality and performance in consideration of the international developments and the outputs that are in accordance with the priorities and objectives of our country and the CoHE while structuring the quality assurance system within their bodies, adding that higher education institutions are required to provide their alumni with digital competence, communication skills, ability to solve complex problems, analytical thinking and ethical awareness aside from specialized knowledge. Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Elmas also remarked that universities can keep up with the ever-changing complex global system by creating a leadership-oriented and knowledge-based management system and that the guideline of the THEQC is to create a universal system by maintaining the renewal efforts in cooperation with relevant international entities and quality agencies. He finally expressed that student participations in evaluation processes will be enabled as of this year and a mentorship system that will provide guidance to higher education institutions as part of the internal and external quality assurance processes will be introduced.

Following Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Elmas, THEQC Vice President Prof. Dr. Tuncay Döğeroğlu made a presentation entitled “Quality Assurance in Higher Education”, in which she pointed out the trends in higher education, quality assurance in higher education, the milestones of the quality assurance endeavors in Turkey’s higher education system and the contributions of the quality assurance approach to our higher education institutions, sharing her suggestions regarding the process with higher education institutions. Underscoring that the institutions are above all required to define their policies on quality assurance and determine their strategies, performance indicators and objectives to implement these policies, Döğeroğlu stated that all the processes in this respect must be performed by meeting the requirements of the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle. Döğeroğlu also said that the PDCA cycle must be employed in every step of the process, and that the checking and acting steps can be achieved with the annually-published internal evaluation reports, but the process is likely to benefit the institution only meagerly unless the institution has an internal quality assurance system

In his presentation entitled “Integrated Quality Management System”, the THEQC Advisor Prof. Dr. Ümit Kocabıçak stated that creating integrated information systems plays a key role in the formation of quality assurance systems. Moreover, he stated that the university management systems must be integrated with all the pertinent processes and stakeholders and must be designed in a way to enable mutual data exchange and reflect the accreditation and quality notion of the institutional identity. Kocabıçak finally remarked that the universities will be guided on the subject.

Following the speeches on the integrated quality assurance and integrated information management in higher education, three panels moderated by Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Elmas, Prof. Dr. Tuncay Döğeroğlu and Prof. Dr. Sibel Aksu Yıldırım were organized. During the panels, presentations were made on the organizational structure of universities, the models for the practice of quality procedures and the practiced information management systems. The presentations covered the quality management practices in TED, Karadeniz Technical, Sakarya, Kırşehir Ahi Evran, Yeditepe and Ankara Universities.

The questions raised by the attendants at the end of the conference were answered by the THEQC President Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Elmas, the THEQC Vice President Prof. Dr. Tuncay Döğeroğlu and the university representatives giving the presentations.

It was noted that further meetings regarding the education and research processes will be organized in the time to come.

The presentations made throughout the meetings include:

24 July 2018

TED University Quality Management Practices (by Prof. Dr. Jülide Yıldırım Öcal)

Karadeniz Technical University Quality Management Practices (by Inst. Ali Haydar Doğu)

Sakarya University Quality Management Practices (by Asst. Prof. Dr. Tuba Canvar Kahveci)

25 July 2018

Kırşehir Ahi Evran University Quality Management Practices (by Prof. Dr. Vatan Karakaya)

Yeditepe University Quality Management Practices (by Prof. Dr. İpek Karaaslan)

Ankara University Quality Management Practices (by Asst. Prof. Dr. Suna Ertunç)

Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Elmas “Evaluation, Accreditation and Quality Processes in Higher Education”

Prof. Dr. Tuncay Döğeroğlu “Quality Assurance in Higher Education”