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Quality Assurance and Curriculum Development

Salahaddin University Quality Assurance and Curriculum Development

Structure and Mechanism

The collection and organization of information and documents in one folder is the sole responsibility of the staff member himself/herself. Every staff member is required to submit his/her portfolio before the end of April (each year) to the departmental head of Quality Assurance (DHoQA) in their academic Department. The DHoQA submit a copy of the portfolio in confidence to the members of the assessment committee, who will fill a preliminary assessment form and score each section from (1-5):

1 = Failed     2 = Below Medium    3 = Medium    4 = Good    5 = Very Good

The final rate will then be recorded and comments added against each section, particularly where the scores are very high (4.5-5.0) or very low (1.0-2.0).The DHoQA will coordinate correspondence and collate the date before finalization by the Staff member Portfolio Assessment Committee (TPAC). 

Staff member Portfolio Assessment Committee (TPAC).

The membership of TPAC will consist of:

  • The Head of the academic Department(HoD, as chairman of the committee). In case of assessing the portfolio of the HoD or other managerial leaders (Head of School,  Dean of Faculty) then the assessment committee must be presided by a person higher than the HoD.
  • The DHoQA.
  • The Head of Quality Assurance in the Faculty (FHoQA), or their representative(a member from the Faculty’s QA committee)
  • The Director of academic and higher education section at faculty level.
  • An experienced academician at the level of Professor or Assistant Professor from outside the Department, whose nomination is approved by the Faculty Council.  The academic grade of the assessor must be higher than, or equivalent to, that of the assessed candidate.
Note: the staff member who is undergoing assessment will not attend the meetings

After completion of the assessment process, ah hour credit will be awarded to each assessor for each portfolio assessed (not exceeding four hours in total).

Assessment Committee Meetings

The departmental assessment committees will hold their meetings before the end of May of each year.  During these meetings, the submitted final forms for each assessed candidate will be reviewed and approved.  The DHoQA will be taking minutes.

The assessment committee must focus on the assisting and encouraging the candidates to make greater efforts to address their shortcoming, raise the quality of their academic work and enhance their career prospects.  The assessment committee must document its comments, criticism, suggestion and recommendations. These will be the feedback returned to the staff member.

Before the end of May, the approved assessment form, alongside the minutes of the assessment committee meeting will be sent to the Dean of the Faculty by the FHoQA. The Dean of the Faculty will then submit the file to the Faculty Council. The staff member portfolio will be returned to the owner.  A copy of the high or very low performers will be kept with the DHoQA for future reference.

The Faculty Council

The Faculty Council will make the decisions listed below before the end of June of each year, FHoQA must attend these meetings.

  • Meeting minutes of the Assessment Committee and the final forms will be considered and approved.  Decisions on difficult or controversial issues can be referred to Faculty Council.
  • The procedures for implementing the Committee’s decision would be according to the ‘table of consequences’ (below). 
  • The Staff member-of-the-Year in each Department and Faculty will be identified from among the staff members who obtained A1 grade.  The candidate at the Faculty level will also be nominated for the University’s staff member of the year (decision by the University Council).
  • The forms of the under-performing staff members who obtained E2 grade will be sent to the University Council for further decisions.

The decisions of the Faculty Council should be proportional and appropriate, designed to serve the interest of students as well as the academic member of staff.  The Faculty Council has the right to investigate the fairness and objectivity of the process followed by the Assessment Committee, but has not authority to interfere with details or influence outcome.

 
The University Council

Each year and before the graduation ceremonies, the Council of the University or Technical institution with the attendance of the Director of Quality Assurance will review the meeting minutes of the Faculty Council and nominate the staff member of the year whose name will be announced at the graduation ceremony. The University Council will also examine the numbers and details of under-performing staff members (obtained E2) and follow up their progress after securing additional support for them.

In every institution, electronic data baseswill be created to collate and analyse the scores for students and communicate these to the Quality Assurance Directorates at the University and the Ministry for future reference and audit.

The Rights of the Assessed Staff Member

The staff member has no right to interfere with the assessment process or communicate with the members of the Assessment Committee.  They have the right to discuss details with the HoD and receive objective feedback. This meeting is not to influence outcome of the process.

Staff members have the right to appeal and ask for re-assessment.  This request is submitted in writing to the Faculty Council, who will consider the request and may decide to have the staff member re-assessed by a different Assessment Committee outside the candidate’s own department.

Conclusion

The staff members portfolio is considered to be an complementary to the quality assurance process. Overlap may be notice in this process and that of Continuous Academic Education and Student Feedback assessment processes. However, there are fundamental differences between these processes that would make each one of these independent, yet complementary.