Prof. Barbara Brittingham, President of the New England Higher Education Commission in US, visits THEQC

THEQC President Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Elmas and Vice-President Prof. Dr. Sibel Aksu Yıldırım held an information sharing meeting with Prof. Barbara Brittingham, the President of the New England Higher Education Commission based in the United States. 

In the meeting, the quality and accreditation processes related to the higher education of the two countries were discussed and information about THEQC’s works was shared. THEQC President Prof. Muzaffer Elmas said: “Within the scope of the THEQC’s Institutional External Evaluation Program, we have completed the first round of the external evaluation of 160 universities offering graduate degrees in Turkey and 10 English preparatory schools. Within the scope of our international activities; our full membership process to the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) has started. In addition, within the scope of incoming registration and recognition applications of national and international accreditation agencies to our Council, we have authorized 12 national accreditation agencies operating in our country, completed the recognition process of 3 international accreditation agencies and signed a cooperation agreement with 2 national quality agencies.”

Prof. Dr. Elmas also gave information about the systems established by THEQC: “We have developed THEQC’s Information Portal, which is an online source of information that universities can use in the process of structuring internal quality assurance systems; the Accreditation Application System (AAS), which is for authorizing accreditation agencies and receiving and monitoring their registry applications; and the Quality Assurance Management Information System (QAMIS) to manage institutions’ evaluation processes and monitor their progress over the years. We also have developed the Program Evaluation Software (UMIS) to help our universities establish internal quality assurance systems and we shared this software with our universities at no charge. With this software, universities will be able to monitor and evaluate their programs according to their own criteria.”

In the meeting, Dr. Brittingham gave information about NECHE. NECHE was founded in 1885 as a subsidiary of NEASC in line with the US Department of Education’s directive.

At the end of the meeting, Dr. Barbara Brittingham was interviewed on quality and accreditation processes in higher education. 

You have made a visit to our institution and you got detailed information about THQC at the meeting. What are your first impressions?

My first impressions of your institution are very good. In two years, you have shown outstanding performance. A visit from ENQA to THEQC will also take place. I think this visit will have very interesting and important results.

Could you tell us a little about the new trends in the world of quality in higher education?

Nowadays, the issue of what students gain from education in the field of quality in higher education has come to the agenda more intensely. In addition to what they have learned, I believe that their successes and contributions to society after leaving higher education have been on the agenda recently.

If it will be compared with the quality system of the higher education system in Turkey, what are the differences and similarities in your country?

If we compare the system here with our system, there are many similarities. Of course there are some differences. I think it is very important to benefit from each other’s experiences and to learn from each other. We have meetings with quality groups in Ireland and Iceland, and I learn from them valuable information on the European Higher Education Quality perspective. And I use this information to make use of our own system.

If we are to keep the number of universities in Turkey in view, what can you say about the Turkish Higher Education System?

The recent development of the system and the acceleration of quality-oriented studies are very promising. I find it positive to search for answers to questions such as “how can we improve the system?” and “how do quality policies contribute to society?”.

What can you tell if you compare the methodology used in Turkey with the methodology you use in your country?

We use very similar methods in terms of basic standards. If you look at the differences, your system uses basic criteria like Rubric and turns this judgment into a number. I think this is very useful in a new system because your evaluators don’t have much experience working with each other. We have a lot of experience in evaluation. The method of converting Rubrics into numbers might be very successful in Turkey while creating a new system.

What are your recommendations for the future?

International cooperation needs to be given importance. I think we have a lot to learn from each other. We can learn a lot from systems that are similar to us, as well as from other systems. Staying connected at the international level and resigning from experience would be my greatest suggestion. This will be beneficial for us and for you.