Announcement of THEQC Regarding the Activities of the Council Amid Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic

Due to Covid-19 Pandemic, measures have taken in every field in the world and in our country and new arrangements have been made in accordance with the current situation. In Turkey, as a preliminary action, the Coronavirus Science Board was established by the Ministry of Health. In line with the suggestions of the Science Board, the Turkish Council of Higher Education (CoHE) announced that formal education was suspended for a while in our higher education institutions and all programs will be carried out with open and distance education in the Spring semester of 2019-2020 academic year.

As the Turkish Higher Education Quality Council (THEQC), we also closely follow the developments caused by the pandemic. In the midst of this pandemic, due to the continuation of the measures taken in our country, the Council staff are working in shifts for office hours in compliance with the Presidential Circular No. 2020/4, and we maintain our activities by using online meeting tools with our Council members, commissions and national accreditation agencies.

With the aim of adapting the processes to this new situation regarding the evaluation of quality assurance systems in higher education institutions, the Institutional External Evaluation Commission of the THEQC held its first meeting on March 18. In the meeting, it was decided to postpone the Institutional Accreditation Program calendar to a further date due to the interruption of face-to-face education in HEIs. However, it has been decided to give feedback to HEIs that have applied to the Institutional Accreditation process, which is planned to be carried out as a pilot program this year.  Commission members and experts will prepare feedback reports based on their evaluations of the Institutional Self Evaluation Reports (ISERs) of the HEIs. These reports will be sent to the HEIs that apply to the pilot Institutional Accreditation Program.

With the transition to distance education in all programs of HEIs, providing quality assurance in distance education has become the priority agenda of our Council. In this process, we aim to guide higher education institutions on the components, principles and quality indicators of the quality assurance systems in distance education. In this context, as of March, 27, the “Distance Education Working Group” was established. This group attempts to increase the visibility of distance education dimension within the current Institutional External Evaluation and Accreditation Criteria. The completed works will be shared with all HEIs and publicly announced on the official website of the THEQC.

On the other hand, during the ongoing pandemic, there is no postponement in the authorization/recognition applications of accreditation agencies, and all processes are carried out without interruption. Additionally, an online meeting will be held with national accreditation agencies on April 9 to support them and exchange views on what can be done during this period.

Similarly, we closely monitor the decisions, adaptations and new practices made by international quality assurance agencies for site visits during the pandemic. We observe that some agencies have gone through flexibility in external evaluation and accreditation practices during this uncertain time, while some other agencies attempt to conduct virtual site visits. As THEQC, we are working intensely on how to manage our own processes by following these various practices during these times of uncertainty.

Like all institutions in our country, THEQC will continue to fulfill its responsibilities and share its activities on the official website of the Council and social platforms during the Covid-19 Pandemic. 

We hope that the coronavirus pandemic will end in a short time without causing any more damage on the society and economy.

Turkish Higher Education Quality Council