Institutional Quality Assurance & Enhancement Directorate (IQAED)

A Brief Recap of Institutional Quality Assurance & Enhancement Directorate Office (IQAED)

Quality assurance is the whole range of actions and mechanisms that support quality in higher education and means of a systematic and continuous process for ensuring that conditions are in place to achieve standards set by the institution or the means by which an institution can guarantee that the standards and quality of its mandates are being maintained. The Institutional Quality Assurance & Enhancement Directorate office, which was established in 2013, takes the leadership and initiative in the institutional quality assurance of the university. It helps the institution to make a quality evaluation of its performance for future enhancement of services. Furthermore, the office should concerned with academic teaching-learning issues, administrative, research, and community service issues and activities, because these are highly interrelated and achievable together. Quality of education is highly affected by the service deliverology of the administrative and supportive staff of the university. Similarly, the level and capacity of academic staff and students’ engagement in scientific innovation research, and community services determines the effectiveness and success of the institution in performing its pillar visions and missions.

Staff Profile under IQAED

Vision

The vision of the office is to seek extensive high-quality education and training opportunities with qualifications that are widely valued nationally and internationally.

Mission

The mission of the office is to enhance the quality of education in all disciplines and/or programs of Adigrat University. The main focus of the mission is to reinforce well-equipped and fair educational services to ensure the quality of education, to establish well-equipped laboratories, workshops, and libraries to deliver all competencies as per the curriculum, to monitor and control the student-center teaching-learning process as per the academic standards of the University and to strengthen the modularization process, curriculum revision and e-learnings and digitalization process for better outcomes.

Objectives

The IQAE Director’s office has the following objectives:

• Developing and implementing formal quality assurance systems, policies, and procedures to help any activities in the University to be consistent and responsive to the vision, mission, goal, and objectives of the university.
• Integrating a quality assurance system comprehensively, clearly, and concretely in every step, and every level of operation in order to instill a quality culture in the university.
• Assessing the quality of core process activities (teaching-learning, research community engagement, and student services) and support process activities (Information Communication Technology, Human Resource Management, Estate, and facility management) of the University;
• Improving the University’s overall management practices to be exemplary in good governance;
• Communicate/liaise with the relevant statutory, accreditation, and professional boards and bodies.

Core Values

1. Accountability and transparency
2. Creativity and innovation
3. Teamwork and collaboration
4. Integrity
5. Positive Attitudes
6. Credibility

Duties and Responsibilities of IQAE Directorate Director

The directorate director is responsible for the following main duties or activities:

• Direct and administer the office of IQAE Directorate;
• Manage the budget, and human and physical resources of the office;
• Be responsible for the implementation of the duties and responsibilities of the office;
• Audit the efficiency and effectiveness of university resources, such as libraries, workshops, laboratories, vehicles, buildings…etc., and ensure they are used for academic, research, and community service purposes;
• Assess the quality and relevance of academic programs at all levels;
• Initiate the quality and relevance review of all programs;
• Coordinate the management and supervision of the quality assurance and enhancement reports in accordance with ETA (Education and Training Authority) requirements & calendar;
• Overview of students’ evaluation reports of the college/Institute/academic unit;
• Evaluate, plan, and design procedures of quality assurance review of curriculum;
• Analysis and design of quality review documents and check-lists and distribution of them to all academic units;
• Suggest and manage or disseminate changes in quality standard indicators if needed;
• Assure quality of self-evaluation portfolio and internal audit program, ensure compliance with AdU regulations;
• Provides leadership and experts in the development and maintenance of an effective quality assurance and enhancement model for AdU;
• Assists the quality enhancement program processes by identifying training needs, workshops, and visits;
• Coordinate the execution of baseline survey, impact assessment, satisfaction survey, performance level, and need assessment survey to ensure the practice of quality enhancement throughout the university;
• Responsible for implementing and running the internal and external audit system in the university;
• Ensure the existence of quality assurance procedures policies and strategies across the university;
• Represent the university regarding the quality assurance and enhancement to external bodies including ETA;
• Provides and facilitates staff development workshops regarding academic quality assurance and enhancement to the university academic and administrative staff;
• Undertake and guide activities of developing, reviewing, and updating training manuals related to quality assurance and enhancement;
• Prepare periodic performance reports to the president and other concerned bodies;
• Carry out education quality competitions and establish reward systems on a regular basis for academic units, programs, module teams, administrators, and instructors;
• Prepare and submit regular activity plans and performance reports of the above and other activities of the directorate;
• Incorporating national and international quality assurance governance, remarkable experiences with the institutional realities to draft and implement better quality assurance policy;
• Ensuring the fulfilment of resources that help for teaching-learning process within the academic calendar, and control and support the process;
• Proposing and implementing research-oriented transformational policies and procedures that enhance institutional quality assurance;
• Exercise and perform other responsibilities and duties the president may entrust to him.

Structure of IQAED

The director’s office works in collaboration with all process owners and all implementation units of the university. The office has a director, quality audit unit and quality enhancement associate directors, quality assurance heads at the college level, quality audit and quality enhancement experts, quality information management experts, and examination, assessment, and feedback experts. In addition, task teams for core and support processes of the institution can be formed by the director of the office with the consent of the president to carry out internal institutional quality and achievement assessments and produce reports for further consideration and actions.