lifelong learning and distance higher education - Asia Pacific Region

Adopting national QA framework for HEOther countries adopt the QA system for higher education (HE) to oversee and monitorthe quality of DE institutions. OUUK’s QA system is closely linked to the nationalQA framework for universities and colleges. OUUK is subject to at least three formsof external assessment undertaken by the Funding Councils and the Quality AssuranceAgency for Higher Education. Three kinds include assessments of: 1) subjects orteaching, 2) research, and 3) institutional performance and management. The first twoare undertaken by the Funding Council for England, the last by the Quality AssuranceAgency for Higher Education.UT programmes are accredited by the National Accreditation Board of Higher Educationand have been assessed by the Directorate General of Higher Education using the “QAGuideline for Higher Education”. In the near future, however, a new “GovernmentRegulation on Distance Education” will be established and applied to the assessment ofdistance education programmes in Indonesia.Other distance teaching universities such as CCRTVU, SHTVU, STOU and KNOU arealso evaluated by the national QA body for HE. Separate evaluation criteria for assessingthe quality of DE have not been reported in these cases.Complying with international QA frameworkBesides a close link to the national QA framework, UT is developing QA systems to acquireISO certification. UT is also in the process of seeking international accreditation and qualitycertification from the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE).CONCLUSIONA quality culture can be defined as an institutional culture that promotes theintroduction of an internal QA system, values the capacity building for implementingQA arrangements, stresses the link between the internal QA system and accountabilityto the public at the national and international levels, and focuses on learning ratherthan teaching. The survey results show that a quality culture has been emerging, if notfully integrated, in the mega universities investigated. All the mega universities havedeveloped and implemented QA standards and procedures in key areas of distanceeducation activities and at least four mega universities surveyed have institutionaliseda central QA unit and thus sought the development of a more systematic and coherentquality culture. Another indicator for the emergence of a quality culture is capacitybuilding efforts made by the institutions. At least half of the mega universities haveprovided continuous staff development opportunities to their academic and administrativestaff in pursuit of quality improvement. It is found that international organisations suchas UNESCO, COL, OECD and World Bank have provided useful QA guidelines andresources for distance educators. Moreover, most of the institutions have shown anaspiration of obtaining national recognition as a high quality DE provider. Some havegone beyond national level accreditation and recognition and pursued internationalrecognition such as ISO certification for their services.The survey also shows that there exists a variety of QA systems of distance educationeven though the globalisation and competitiveness of higher education and thedevelopment of technology have brought distance teaching universities closer togetherin terms of developing a common quality culture. The level of QA policy integrationin an overall university policy framework varies across the mega universities. Some90