THEQC Completes the 2025 In-depth Evaluator Training

The “2025 In-depth Evaluator Training” organised by the Turkish Higher Education Quality Council (THEQC) was held online between 2-4 September 2025.

Evaluator candidates who participated in the training program had the opportunity to improve their knowledge and skills through interactive, hands-on activities during the full-day sessions.

Prof. Ümit Kocabıçak, THEQC President, gave the opening speeches of the training. Informing that 699 evaluator candidates were invited to the training, President Kocabıçak said that 43 evaluations would be carried out in the scope of the Institutional Accreditation Program, seven in the scope of the Institutional External Evaluation Program, and four in the scope of the Follow-up Program, with the evaluators to be selected at the end of the training.

President Kocabıçak said, “THEQC has the authority to evaluate any university in the world under the International Institutional Accreditation Program (IIAP). To start with, universities from Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina, one university each, have been included in the international institutional accreditation process carried out by THEQC. The number of applicants will increase. We will be able to commission the selected evaluators in the international context as well. In total, 56 HEIs will be evaluated in the upcoming cycle.”

Stating that THEQC had issued a new directive on the selection of evaluators and shared it with the public on the THEQC website, he continued: “Accordingly, the evaluators who participate in the In-depth Evaluator Training will continue to be our evaluator candidates for three years without attending any additional training. After this training, we will start the process of forming evaluation teams. We plan to organise a training session for the selected teams later. We think that the training sessions are important because of their contribution to internal and external quality assurance systems at HEIs.”

The three-day training aimed to enable evaluator candidates to evaluate institutions by correctly interpreting the criteria used in quality assurance processes. Participants had the opportunity to gain experience in identifying strengths and areas for improvement, as well as developing suggestions for improvement. The training ended with an exam.