Education Quality Week Announced in Armenia

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National Center for Professional Education Quality Assurance Foundation has announced Education Quality Week (QWeek) on February 20-24. The aim of the Qweek, which is organized already for the third time, is to focus the attention of the representatives of education sphere, governing bodies and public on quality assurance, to discuss the current issues of the sphere, to share the best practice and to form the general vision for the future. During the upcoming week workshops will take place on the issues related to students, young lecturers, the alignment of academic programs to National Qualifications Framework and the week will be summed up by a two-day conference on the improvement of assessment systems. Qweek will launch on February 20 with the workshop for students. Students, lecturers, responsible people for quality assurance, education managers and other representatives of the sphere will participate in the workshop. The workshop will serve as a platform for discussion to comprehend the essence of raised issues and to find reasonable and efficient solutions. The following topics will be discussed during the workshop:

• availability of university resources to all the students regardless of the education institution
• requirements of labor market and the correspondence of the higher education with those requirements
• the gaps in Master education
• Master student as researcher, specialist and workforce
• higher education
• what is the student paying for

Giving much importance to the role of the lecturers in bringing the quality assurance to the classroom, ANQA dedicated the workshop planned on February 21 to the discussion of issues concerning the lecturers. During the workshop the following topics should be discussed in order to find out necessary solutions:

• the peculiarities of credit system and credit allocation
• skills necessary for students
• the alignment of learning outcomes of the academic program with the requirements of labor market
• the proportions of practical and theoretical education
• promotion of interdisciplinary cooperation among the different professions of the same or different universities
• teaching and assessment
• methodology and criteria
• ways of improvement of assessment system
• the importance and availability of resources in education quality assurance
• alternative solutions
• teaching staff (motivation, introductory package for the new lecturers, lecturer as a researcher)
• teaching staff and quality assurance
• the importance of continuous research of one’s own work

The workshop for the young lecturers will also become a platform for sharing best practice and making a dialogue among the stakeholders. Young lecturers, responsible people for education quality assurance, education managers, students and other representatives of the sphere will participate in the workshop. The third day of the QWeek is dedicated to the alignment of the academic programs to the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). In cooperation with TEMPUS ALIGN project ANQA organizes a workshop where the achievements of ALIGN project and the current challenges will be presented. During the workshop the necessity of improving academic programs will be discussed from the point of view of students, lecturers and education managers. Particularly the improvement of assessment system as an efficient tool for teaching will be highlighted. During the workshop the results of external evaluations of academic programs carried out in Armenian, Russian and Ukrainian partner institutions as well as the best practice of alignment of learning outcomes (LOs) with NQF and the lessons learned will be presented. At the end of the workshop local and international experts, students and ANQA representatives will make a proposal to the Government about the necessary changes in the academic programs on the national level. QWeek will be summed up with a two-day conference on February 23-24 entitled “Quality in the Classroom: Improvement of assessment systems”. Cluster audit will launch in the current year in RA higher education institutions. The process is directed to the reforms of academic programs and the clarification of the overall sphere. ANQA gives importance to the dialogue and exchange of experience among the stakeholders and understands the importance of assessment in QA processes. Taking into consideration the fact that particularly the effectiveness and improvement of assessment system is highlighted in the discussions with the stakeholders, ANQA dedicated the 4^th conference of QA stakeholders to the assessment. During the event current problems and future challenges of education quality assurance will be reflected upon, the process, aim, criteria and spheres of cluster audit will be presented. The criteria for cluster audit will also be discussed during the two workshops with the participation of experts and lecturers, deans and heads of chairs. During the workshops the following topic will also be covered:

• “Revision of Academic Programs within the Framework of the Improvement of Assessment System”
• “Improvement of Teaching through the Revision of Assessment Systems”
• “Planning of Student Progress: the Role of Assessment”

A discussion with stakeholders on “What kind of assessment does the student expect from the education institution?” will take place. During the workshop the leading specialists of the sphere from UK, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland and Russia will present the best practices of education quality assurance of their own country. The activities towards the establishment of network of QA specialists and supporters will be presented and the launch of the activities of the network will be announced. During the workshops there will be also power point presentations about the innovations in the sphere of education, the investment of new teaching and assessment methods.