The Role of Accrediting Agencies

Accrediting agencies are autonomous bodies commissioned mainly to grant accreditation to academic institutions that meet the prescribed quality standards. The accreditation process takes through a detailed systematic procedure that considers reviewing of the academic institution operations, whether teaching and learning offered to meet the quality standards, and encourages improvement to international standards. All accreditations offered by accrediting bodies call for institutional accreditation before any other type of accreditation is granted. Accreditation can be classified as international and national, where the process in both the methods have some common and different steps. Each accrediting body under the designated government authority has prescribed procedures, terms, and conditions to be fulfilled by institutions for the accreditation process. OAAA, CAA, and the NCAAA are the more active accrediting bodies operational in the GCC region commissioned in Oman, UAE, and KSA, respectively.

Obstacles to Applying the Principle of Disclosure and Transparency in Higher Education Institutions: An Exploratory Study in Private Universities in the Sultanate of Oman

The study aimed to explore the obstacles to applying the principle of disclosure and transparency in higher education institutions in private universities in the Sultanate of Oman. The qualitative method was used through in-depth interview as a tool to reveal the opinions of the study sample about the obstacles to applying the principle of disclosure and transparency in private universities, Oman. The sample consisted of (12) individuals from the administrative leaders in the universities under study. The study results reported a number of obstacles to the application of disclosure and transparency in Omani private universities, where (83%) of the sample agreed that there was weak disclosure transparency in the university's budget and the spending items. In addition, (50%) of the sample agreed that there was weakness of credibility and transparency when applying policies, internal work controls, subjective evaluation of the employee’s performance by his direct manager, and weak awareness of the importance of disclosure and transparency among managers. Therefore, the study recommended activating disclosure and transparency mechanisms in private universities in Oman by adding the principle of disclosure and transparency as an independent measure within the standard of governance and management to obtain institutional accreditation, and by providing electronic systems with integrated services and functions.

Emilia-Romagna Regional Blood System accreditation as an example of improvement through application of specific requirements: a retrospective analysis

BackgroundInstitutional accreditation in Italy represents the license given by a region to a public or private facility to provide services in the name and on behalf of the National Health Service. This study aims to evaluate the improvement of the Emilia-Romagna Regional Blood System and to highlight its unresolved issues, analysing non-conformities observed during accreditation and maintenance inspections between 2013 and 2018.MethodsAll the Emilia-Romagna Regional Blood facilities were invited to participate in this study voluntarily and anonymously. Participants had to access a web application that we developed specifically. For each of the three inspections evaluated in this study, they had to enter data about the state of their organisation branches and non-conformities observed by regional inspectors. All data entered were finally exported from the web application database and analysed with spreadsheets. Statistical analysis was performed using Wilcoxon signed-rank test with continuity correction.Results17 structures took part in the study, with a total of 174 organisation branches. The number of branches changed over the years because of new openings and closures due to reorganisations or non-conformities that were too difficult to correct. Inspectors observed 2381 non-conformities (291 structural, 611 technological and 1479 organisational). As a result of accreditation inspections and consequent improvement actions, non-conformities were reduced by 88%. The most frequent non-conformities concerned the management software and the transportation of blood and blood components.ConclusionAn improvement in the Emilia-Romagna Regional Blood System over time is evident: institutional accreditation certainly pushed it to change and overcome its problems to comply with specific requirements. The remaining non-conformities after the three inspections were mostly organisational and management software was the most critical issue. Despite these non-conformities, all currently active structures are accredited and guarantee high standards of quality and safety of products and services.

Publishing in Local ELT Journals: A Way to Decolonialize Knowledge

Educational institutions, particularly those for higher education, seek to ensure their visibility and valid indicators for institutional accreditation processes through the publications of their teachers. Their projection is intimately associated with the circulation of their production in accredited publications whose reputations depend on their positions in prestigious rankings, databases, and indexing systems. That is why Colombia, in recent years, has experienced an increase in the number of scientific journals published in the country. This phenomenon was a reaction by academics to the obstacles for publishing in renowned journals, generally edited in hegemonic or central contexts, where it is presumed that knowledge is disseminated for the whole world. In this article, I analyze the role played by locally edited journals in the decolonialization of knowledge. I base my analysis on studies carried out in the fields of the English teacher as researcher and writer, academic writings, and the publication of scientific journals. I identify the contributions, suggestions and challenges for publications in the English Language Teaching area. I also stress the importance of strengthening professional communities, encouraging greater participation by professors in the dissemination of their work, and the need to value knowledge generated in peripheral contexts, without ignoring links with the global world.

Institutional Accreditation and the Professionalisation of Teaching in the HE Sector

Institutional accreditation is an integral part of moves to professionalise teaching and learning in higher education (HE). Despite this growing trend, there is a paucity of literature which examines the benefits and challenges of institutional accreditation. In this chapter we draw on survey data collected in 2020 from 55 HE institutions globally which are accredited by Advance HE to award Fellowships. These teaching Fellowships are aligned to the UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning (UKPSF). Findings show that institutional accreditation supports the career development of teaching-focused academics and impacts on teaching and learning in a number of ways. These impacts include providing an external benchmark, raising the profile and quality of teaching and encouraging teaching-related professional development, including engagement with scholarship in teaching and learning. Accreditation was also found to align with neoliberal agendas of quality, league tables and marketization. The perennial issue of how to evaluate the impact on student learning is something respondents continue to grapple with. Finally, these data demonstrate there is a clear need to develop a more systematic and embedded approach to evaluation that captures the outcomes of teaching-related professional development.

HRM in Higher Education Model Competency and Job Matching in Placement

Higher Education Intitution (HEIs) in making changes so that their competitive roles and leadership competencies are factors that need to be taken into account. This paper aims to identify the Job Competency Requirement (JCR) of top leader HEI or rector and analyse the matching of person competency with the JCR in order to placement the appropriate leader in order to achieve effective performance. Methodology using competency with called the Behavior Event Interview (BEI), is a semi structured interview in which the respondent is asked to recall recent, specific events in which he or she felt effective and quantitative methods with surveys using questionnaires. The sample uses HEIs which has excellent institutional accreditation, namely leaders, deans and Heads of Departments (HoD's). The research finding is that the competency requirements for leaders at HEI's are 15 competencies. Practical implications that competency can be used for selection, placement, succession plan, leadership development of HEIs and policy makers concern with leadership development .

Profiling of Accreditation in Libyan Higher Education Institutions

Institutional accreditation is often implemented as a tool for service enhancement or as a vehicle for educational change in broadly different settings. There is little evidence of the effect of accreditation, although there are indications in developed countries that facilities complying with initial low standards substantially increase their compliance levels as a result of engaging in accreditation programs funded by quality improvement interventions. This review intends to highlight on the profiling of accreditation in Libyan higher education institutions.