THEQC President Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Elmas’ Message to Rectors

ear Rectors, 

According to the Regulation on Higher Education Quality Assurance and Higher Education Quality Council, institutional self-evaluation reports are required to be uploaded on our web-based system by the end of March. The reports must reflect the institution’s progress in terms of mission and strategies by covering the annual improvements in the areas of education, research and development, social contribution, quality assurance and administration.  

By the end of June 2019, the Council will complete the first cycle of the external evaluation process of higher education institutions producing graduates. Following this stage, we are planning to monitor the progress in the visited institutions with the help of the system we established and follow-up visits by the time of the next site visits. In so doing, we aim to ensure an open and transparent monitoring and reporting of quality processes and a clear definition of the institutions’ current situations. 

Within these stages, the self-evaluation reports submitted by the institutions will be our main reference point. Our purpose is to enable the portrayal of the actual situations of the institutions in terms of the defined criteria by means of the self-evaluation reports, site visits and external evaluation reports. Therefore, we expect the preparation of the self-evaluation reports under your watch and the completion of the process by informing the Senate. 

In the self-evaluation reports submitted by the institutions, the focal points must comprise how the institution’s objectives and strategies are controlled, which key performance indicators are employed and what kind of measures are taken in this respect to make improvements rather than focusing solely on planning and implementation steps. It is important to pay regard to the aspects related to the criteria in the Institutional Self-Evaluation Report Writing Guide and to upload the required documents and evidence for improvement as well as additional evidence on the system. The performance indicators we expect from the institutions must be prepared meticulously, and additional indicators peculiar to the institution must be added if any. Our Council provides all necessary support throughout the process. In this scope, following areas are particularly expected to be focused on while writing the self-evaluation reports.

-Monitoring learning outcomes, instructors’ educational activities that promote learning outcomes, providing learning spaces in line with these activities and tracking alumni in education area, 

-Monitoring the results and their contributions in research and development area,

-Information management systems and leadership of administrators in the area of quality management

The success of quality processes in higher education is in direct proportion to the leadership traits and contributions of administrators. Thank you for your cooperation and contributions.   

Prof. Dr. Muzaffer ELMAS

President – Higher Education Quality Council of Turkey