CIQG Annual Meeting - Imperatives For Quality Assurance, International Standards and Innovation

CHEA International Quality Group Annual Meeting. January 29 (evening) - January 30. Capital Hilton Hotel - Washington, DC. Click Here for a Registration Form and Hotel Reservation Information
CIQG Annual Meeting - Imperatives For Quality Assurance, International Standards and Innovation
OPENING DIALOGUE - DO WE WANT OR NEED A SINGLE SET OF INTERNATIONAL QUALITY STANDARDS?
As quality assurance becomes increasingly international, is a single set of international standards becoming an imperative? Alternatively, should quality assurance remain country- based or regional as well, continuing to respect cultural diversity and national sovereignty?
1. What are the arguments in favor of a single set of international quality standards?
2. What are the arguments against?
3. If we have international standards, what would they look like? Aspirational standards such as those in regional frameworks (e.g., ESG)? Outcomes-based or competency- based standards? Expectations of quality framed in quantitative terms, e.g., numbers of graduates, retention, employment? A mixture?
4. Right now, quality assurance processes vary. We have countries that have their own standards, and countries that have their own standards and also use regional standards. We have countries with and without qualifications frameworks. We have countries that do and do not rely on rankings (either formally or informally). Is current international quality assurance “working”? If so, what is the added value of a single set of international standards?
5. What makes quality assurance “international” – as compared to regional or country- based?
ARE RANKINGS BECOMING A FORM OF INTERNATIONAL QUALITY STANDARDS?
Global, regional and country-based rankings continue to grow in influence and numbers. Will rankings ultimately become de facto international standards to judge quality?
REGIONAL AND COUNTRY-BASED QUALITY STANDARDS: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
Regional and country-based quality standards have each played a significant role in the organization of the work of assuring and improving quality. What are recent developments? What do we learn when examining various approaches?
POST-TRADITIONAL PROVIDERS OF HIGHER EDUCATION: WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE?
Higher education may be entering a “post-traditional” era in which the work of institutions (credentialing, teaching and learning, curriculum development, evaluation) is no longer confined to colleges and universities. Alternative providers are emerging, including MOOCs, low-cost providers of course offerings as well as competency-based offerings and assessment of prior learning. This “unbundling” or “disaggregation” of the key elements of higher education raises questions and challenges for quality assurance: How will traditional quality assurance address the emergence of post-traditional providers of educational offerings?
HOW MIGHT QUALITY ASSURANCE RESPOND?
Does the unbundling of higher education call for the unbundling of quality assurance? What might this mean? A Quality Platform: an international standard for post-traditional education?
CLOSING DISCUSSION HIGHER EDUCATION OUT OF THE BOX RESPONDING TO INNOVATIONS
What are key issues and insights that have emerged from today’s discussion? What type of quality assurance do we want to create going forward?
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