Handbook for Quality Assurance in Higher Education The ... - TCU

pects and to judge the weighting of each of them. Positive aspects may compensate for some
negative ones. Marking each aspect leads to a verdict on each aspect of the model. Filling in
the total score in Table 9 produces a good overview of the strengths and weaknesses.
Do not start to complete the checklist before you have finished the text of the SAR. First the
text and then the marking, and not the other way round. By doing so, the may help you to see
if there is any discrepancy between them and the wording.
Summary of strengths
Summarise the points that the department considers to be its strengths and mark the points
that you are proud of.
Summary of weaknesses
Indicate which points the department considers to be weak and in need of improvement. Also
indicate what you are going to do about this.
2.3 Follow up after the self-assessment
The self-assessment report will lead to many follow-up activities:
• if connected with an external assessment, the expert team will visit the faculty/department
and discuss with you the SAR. The assessment might lead to recommendations for
improvement (see Volume 2: Guidelines for external assessment)
• if not connected with any formal external assessment, the university may decide to
invite some colleagues from other universities to carry out an inter-collegial assessment
and ask for the formulation of recommendations (you may use volume 2 Guidelines for
external assessment).
• In all cases, the outcomes of the self-assessment must be translated into a quality plan
that shows what activities the university will undertake in the near future. The self-assessment
will show us where we are now and will give us the direction to where we would
like to be, say, in 5 years’ time.
Only with a clear follow up, and quality action plan will the investment in the self assessment
and the SAR make sense.
Guidelines for Self Assessment
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IUCEA/ CHE/ NCHE/ TCU/ DAAD