THEQC Delegation Completes the Visit Program in England for Academics’ Competency Enhancement

The Turkish Higher Education Quality Council (THEQC) completes the visit program in England, in cooperation with the British Council and Advance HE, to share information about teaching and learning centres and their practices.

An assessment report was published regarding the visit to London on 9-14 October 2022, within the scope of the “Project for Supporting the Capacity of Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.”

THEQC delegation comprised Prof. Mustafa Çufalı, THEQC Vice-President; Prof. Vatan KARAKAYA, Kırşehir Ahi Evran University Rector and THEQC Council Member, and Assoc. Prof. Salih Bardakcı, THEQC Expert responsible for evaluator training.

The delegation paid visits to Advance HE, the City University of London, the UK Science Council, the University College London, the British Council’s Stradford Office, the University of East London, and the Turkish MoNE’s Office of Education Counsellor in London. The visits were based on a mutual exchange of views and information sharing.

In the report, which states that the sustainable support of the teaching competencies of the teaching staff is a fundamental problem for higher education systems around the world, it is noted that the follow-up and development of these competencies by centres for excellence in teaching and learning is a highly effective solution in this regard.

THEQC, which cares about supporting teaching competency with similar practices in the Turkish higher education system, considers the development of the teaching staff’s qualifications as an independent criterion within the institutional external evaluation and accreditation criteria.

With the cooperation of THEQC and the British Council, a two-stage project was carried out in the 2021-2022 academic year to support the teaching and learning excellence centres in the Turkish higher education system and the capacity to provide quality assurance of the service provided in such centres. In the first phase of the project, an online training series was organised with around 200 participants from almost 150 universities. The aim of the visits paid in London, the second phase of the project, was to closely examine the teaching and learning competency development studies carried out in the United Kingdom.