Networking for Building and Sustaining Quality Culture in Higher Education Institutions
The ASEAN-QA Forum is a platform for quality assurance practitioners and stakeholders to exchange and network on issues related to quality assurance in higher education institutions (HEIs) in ASEAN and beyond with a special focus on the interregional exchange between ASEAN and Europe.
The Forum will launch the ASEAN-QA Association, an association initiated by Alumni of the ASEAN-QA Project. It has been initiated by a Core Group of Alumni and the ASEAN-QA Project Partners coming from Southeast Asia and Europe, namely the ASEAN Quality Assurance Network (AQAN), the ASEAN University Network (AUN), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), the German Rectors ́ Conference (HRK), the Regional Centre for Higher Education and Development (SEAMEO RIHED), and the University of Potsdam.
The ASEAN-QA project has been active in the field of capacity building for higher education quality assurance since 2011 with over 100 HEIs taking part in the implemented trainings and activities. The experience of the trainings and conferences held, have emphasised the need and benefits gained by the exchange and networking on the topic of quality assurance and related fields between HEIs, agencies and stakeholders from ASEAN and Europe. This led the Alumni and Partners to initiate the ASEAN-QA Forum as a platform for networking and sharing experiences beyond the project.
With this call the organising Alumni and Partners want to invite higher education professional, practitioners and researchers as well as stakeholders to share their practices, experiences, research and findings to the below topics during the Forum.
The ASEAN-QA Forum is to be held on 7-8 November 2019 in Hanoi, Vietnam.
About the Forum:
The ASEAN-QA Forum will bring together HEIs (e.g. leadership, QA managers and students) and various external stakeholders such as representatives from politics, ministries, QA agencies, and employers, in an effort to learn from each other’s practices, discuss current and future issues of quality assurance and related fields. By doing so the Forum aims to find solutions, connect HEIs and stakeholders as well as to contribute to building trust between individuals and organisations. The ASEAN-QA Forum understands itself as a platform for HEIs and stakeholders of QA to build a community of practice based on dialogue and exchange.
Target Group:
All interested organisations and individuals are welcome to attend the Forum. The Forum targets, but is not limited to, the following groups:
- Presidents and Vice-Presidents, Rectors and Pro-Rectors, Vice-Chancellors and Deputy Vice-Chancellors from HEIs
- Directors of quality assurance and related fields from HEIs
- QA staff and managers from central units and
- faculties/departments
- Students and lecturers active or interested in the field of QA
- Political and ministerial representatives in the field of higher
- education
- Representatives from external QA and evaluation agencies
- Researchers of higher education and QA
- Representatives of employers such as associations active in
- the field of QA in HE
Main Theme and Call for Contributions:
The main theme of the Forum is Networking for Building and Sustaining Quality Culture in Higher Education Institutions. Quality assurance and development in HEIs in the ASEAN region is recognised to be an important tool for closing the gap between the higher education systems in Southeast Asia and supporting regionalisation, mobility and exchange of students and workforce. It is further a tool to support the competitiveness of HEIs in a globalising higher education system and to introduce, foster and adapt to current and future political, societal and economic needs and demands.
With the rising complexity and expectations, HEIs need to flexibly address changes and find solutions for future challenges such as preparing students of today with future-skills to be the workforce of tomorrow. HEIs and QA professionals and stakeholders need thus to join forces and tackle common challenges as well as sharing good practices, not only on national or regional level but also beyond.
In this light, the main theme of the first ASEAN-QA Forum is networking in the area of higher education quality assurance. The Forum brings together all higher education quality stakeholders to discuss the needs and demands of such networks and how to jointly overcome challenges in the field, to learn from each other and initiate common ideas, practices and projects. Contributions focusing on experiences and good practices as well as more generally on networking and collaboration in the area of quality of higher education are welcome.
Consortia, individuals, organizations, networks and researchers are invited to submit contributions on the topic of networking/collaboration in QA and the further tracks below to join the discussions during the Forum. Further tracks of the Forum are:
Track 1: Sustainability of Quality Assurance and Development Systems and Processes
How can quality assurance be sustainably implemented? How can quality assurance processes have sustainable effects? The commitment of leadership is seen to be an important pillar for quality assurance to be effective, yet when leadership changes, the support can change. How can QA systems and processes be set up to not rely on individuals? Further, it is a common challenge that repetitive quality development processes (such as programme assessments) lose their traction over time. In this light, how can continuous and sustainable quality development be achieved?
Track 2: Integrated (Holistic) Quality Assurance and Development Systems
Quality assurance in higher education covers more than its core process of teaching and learning. Quality assurance systems though are often delimited to one core process and only selectively connected. This track features QA systems covering other processes in an HEI such as services, research and development, community involvement, administration, facilities management as well as integrated systems covering QA systems holistically. Experiences and challenges in integrating the systems or setting them up are of core interest.
Track 3: Evaluation Tools and Data Utilization in QA
Higher education institutions collect a high amount of data which are though rarely analysed beyond descriptive statistics. The current analysis and use of data in most HEIs does not exploit the full potential of data to make and initiate informed decision making (e.g. of programme managers and administrators). Use of data like stakeholder feedback and course evaluation results can be maximized to help HEIs in their management decisions and quality assurance activities. This covers use of data like feedback from stakeholders or survey results to improve programs and services in higher education. Contributions submitted in this track may include development of evaluation instruments, different evaluation methods, follow-up processes, and data analysis which support a more data-informed and evidence based decision making in higher education management.
Track 4: Stakeholder and Student Involvement
To involve stakeholders in quality assurance processes and teaching and learning can be challenging. Given that the involvement of stakeholders like students is crucial in sustaining the quality of education and services in HEIs, this track focuses on structures and processes including communication through which stakeholders can bring their ideas and contributions to HEI processes and management levels. How can stakeholders (esp. students) be effectively included in quality assurance and enhancement processes? How can they efficiently communicate and share their ideas and needs to the higher education institution?
Track 5: Role of QA in Internationalisation
This track focuses on quality assurance tools, processes and systems that support the internationalization of study programmes (e.g. student mobility, exchanges, role of faculty). As a result, networking and cooperation among higher education institutions (HEIs) foster student mobility, research collaboration, and comparability of programmes which ultimately respond to enrich teaching and learning activities of HEIs.
Abstract Submission
The submission of contributions in the form of abstracts is due 31 July 2019. Abstracts of presentations on the main theme of the Forum and the above topics are welcome. The presentations should not be longer than 20 minutes followed by discussion and will be assigned to the track or session by the Programme Committee. Presentations may focus on the implications and/or transferability of:
- Practice: good practices such as success stories, challenges encountered, lessons learned and/or analysis,
- Policy: delineating policy approaches, the experiences and challenges of implementation and lessons learnt and/or analysis,
- Research: laying out the research methodology and findings as well as the implications for policy and/or practice.
Abstracts should:
- have a description of 500 words maximum (text only, without references, figures or tables),
- fit to one or maximum two themes of the Forum,
- include all the names of the authors with affiliation and email addresses
- include a short-bio of the authors (see example),
- include keywords should be given for each abstract submission,
- be written in English,
- be submitted through http://asean- qa.org/s/CfCForum/en.html.
- All references in the text must be included in a reference list at the end of the abstract in APA format, 6th edition.
Abstracts need to be submitted via the online form under http://asean- qa.org/s/CfCForum/en.html. Should you have any questions please contact forum@asean-qa.org. The proposals will be reviewed by the Programme Committee. Applicants will be informed by September 2019 if their proposal has been accepted and if amendments need to be done.
Applicants should be available for the ASEAN-QA Forum in Hanoi from 7 to 8 November 2019. Selected applicants will be exempted from the registration fee. Students and participants from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar or Timor-Leste can apply for coverage of accommodation and/or travel costs (limited to one author per contribution). Alumni of ASEAN-QA will be supported with coverage of accommodation. Further registration details will follow.
Key Dates
31 July 2019: Hand in of proposals
September 2019: Information about selection and required amendments 6 November: ASEAN-QA Alumni Meeting
7-8 November 2019: Presentation of selected contributions at ASEAN-QA Forum at Foreign Trade University in Hanoi.