quality assurance manual of the seychelles documents/ role of the seychelles qualifications...

Quality Assurance Manual

of the

Seychelles Qualifications Authority

Final version 1.0

30 May 2011

Copyright 2011 Seychelles Qualifications Authority. All rights reserved.

Final Version 1.0, 30 May 2011 Page 2

Contents Glossary of Acronyms and Abbreviations ....................................................................................... 5

Glossary of key terms ...................................................................................................................... 5

1.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 6

1.1 Role of the Seychelles Qualifications Authority ...................................................................... 7

1.2 Purpose of the SQA quality assurance system ........................................................................ 7

1.3 The purpose of this quality assurance manual ....................................................................... 8

1.4 Three step process to assure the quality of qualifications ..................................................... 8

1.5 Four mechanisms for assuring quality .................................................................................... 9

1.5.1 Definition of Institutional Accreditation ......................................................................... 9

1.5.2 Definition of Institutional Audit ...................................................................................... 9

1.5.3 Definition of Programme Validation ............................................................................... 9

1.5.4 Definition of Programme Accreditation .......................................................................... 9

1.6 Quality Assurance Committee, Validation Sub-committee and Accreditation Teams ......... 10

1.7 Schedule of fees .................................................................................................................... 10

2.0 Framework of evaluation criteria for Quality Assurance .......................................................... 11

2.1 Sub set for institutional audit and accreditation .................................................................. 12

2.2 Subset for validation ............................................................................................................. 12

2.3 Subset for programme accreditation .................................................................................... 12

2.4 Application of the evaluation criteria to ODL providers and programmes .......................... 12

3.0 Institutional accreditation ......................................................................................................... 13

3.1 Managing the dual purposes of Institutional Accreditation ................................................. 13

3.2 Application for institutional accreditation ............................................................................ 14

3.3 Process of institutional accreditation ................................................................................... 14

3.3.1 Initiation ........................................................................................................................ 15

3.3.2 Self-evaluation .............................................................................................................. 16

3.3.3 Accreditation visit ......................................................................................................... 19

3.3.4 Accreditation report ...................................................................................................... 20

3.3.5 Accreditation outcome ................................................................................................. 20

3.4 Monitoring of non-accredited or provisionally accredited institutions ................................ 22

4.0 Institutional Audit ..................................................................................................................... 23

4.1 Process of institutional audit ................................................................................................ 23

4.1.1 Notification of audit ...................................................................................................... 23

4.1.2 Audit visit ...................................................................................................................... 23

4.1.3 Audit report ................................................................................................................... 24

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4.1.4 Audit outcome .............................................................................................................. 24

4.2 Monitoring of audit follow up ............................................................................................... 24

5.0 Programme validation............................................................................................................... 24

5.1 Application for validation ...................................................................................................... 25

5.2 Involvement of experts ......................................................................................................... 25

5.3 Process of validation ............................................................................................................. 25

5.3.1 Submission of the application ....................................................................................... 25

5.3.2 Processing of the application ........................................................................................ 25

5.3.3 Validation report ........................................................................................................... 25

5.3.4 Outcome of validation .................................................................................................. 26

5.4 Support for provisionally validated and not validated programmes ................................ 26

5.5 Validation of Short Courses .................................................................................................. 26

5.5.1 Fast tracking validation of short course applications ................................................... 27

5.6 Recognition and Validation of international qualifications .................................................. 27

5.6.1 International qualifications offered by providers who are not physically based in

Seychelles ...................................................................................................................................... 27

5.6.2 International qualifications offered by providers who are physically based in

Seychelles ...................................................................................................................................... 28

6.0 Programme accreditation ......................................................................................................... 28

6.1 Single programmes and groups of programmes................................................................... 29

6.2 Involvement of subject experts/professional bodies ........................................................... 29

6.3 Process of Programme Accreditation ................................................................................... 29

6.3.1 Application for Programme Accreditation .................................................................... 30

6.3.2 Programme Accreditation visit ..................................................................................... 30

6.3.3 Programme Accreditation report .................................................................................. 31

6.3.4 Programme Accreditation outcome ............................................................................. 31

6.4 Monitoring of provisionally accredited programmes ........................................................... 31

7.0 Appealing a decision of the SQA Board .................................................................................... 31

Appendix One: Framework of Evaluation Criteria ................................................................................ 33

Appendix Two: Evaluation criteria at three levels of performance ...................................................... 40

Appendix Three: Application for Institutional Accreditation ................................................................ 52

Appendix Four: Evidence Collection Guide for Self-Evaluators ............................................................ 55

Appendix Five: Evidence Collection Guide for Accreditation Team members ..................................... 58

Appendix Six: Template Self Evaluation Report .................................................................................... 63

Appendix Seven: Template Accreditation Report ................................................................................. 65

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Appendix Eight: Possible sources of evidence ..................................................................................... 68

Appendix Nine: Template for Action Planning for Improvement ......................................................... 71

Appendix Ten: Application for Programme Validation .......................