Doktorantura ödəniş
Odina Conkright
International cooperation in quality assurance has been an essential element of the Bologna process aiming to create a European Higher Education Area. A central tool in this work has been the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (also known as the ESG). The Twinning project offers an opportunity for applying the ESG in Azerbaijani higher education. One of the mandatory results of the project is to develop Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education in Azerbaijan (AzSG) in line with the ESG and to test them with three higher education institutions.
The overall aim of the Component 4 is to develop Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education in Azerbaijan, in line with the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG) and test them with three higher education institutions.
- Participants: Adalat Ibadov, Shahin Bayramov, Rasim Sharifov, Sevda Hajibayova, Humay Agayeva, Anar Huseynov, Mehriban Maharramova, Afet Jafarova, Reshad Maharramov, Navai Aliyev, İnara Rzayeva, Ulviyya Rasulova, Ragif Gasimov, Mirsahib Eminov, Fatima Aliyeva
- Participants: Khalig Yahudov, Natig Ahmadov, Ali Khalilov, Elvin Bakhtiyarli, Mammadaslan Guliyev, Mehman Binnatov, Israil Elyazov, Huseyn Mirzayev, Mirzali Seyidzade, Fuad Mammadov, Nilufar Rahimova, Gabil Hashimov, Akif Bakhshiyev, Rafayil Ahmadov, Elchin Rzayev
The participation of some of the local experts in the evaluation groups still needs to be confirmed, including the student representatives for the Azerbaijan State Economic University and the Azerbaijan Technical University.
The evaluation groups have a considerable amount of work ahead of them, and the role of the project managers as well as chairs is crucial. It is necessary to coordinate the process among the FINEEC and EKKA project managers, in order to implement the three pilot evaluations in a similar manner in all three universities.
The mission provided a good opportunity to discuss the next steps in the pilot evaluations, and arrangements for the pilot evaluations are underway. The pilot evaluations will provide an excellent learning opportunity for all.
The final version of the Accreditation Rules of Higher Education Institutions (Accreditation Rules) and Standards determining the compliance of the activity of institution with the requirements of state education standards (Accreditation Standards) should be forwarded to the Cabinet of Ministers for approval in March 2017.
- Meeting with Slhaddin Gozalov and Vusala Gurbanova: study visit to Brussels; information about next missions regarding the roadmap for doctoral education and revision of the new draft of State Standards for Higher Education
The expected results of the mission were achieved. The new draft of Accreditation Rules and Accreditation Standards, as well as recommendations were discussed. Due to the active participation of ANO, it was possible to critically evaluate the impact and applicability of recommendations.
Remarkable efforts have been made by ANO in reviewing the existing Accreditation Rules and Accreditation Standards. In order to provide further support ANO regarding the improvement of their regulatory framework, we have the following recommendations:
However, the concept of learning outcomes has not yet been introduced in the Standards. According to clause 1.2 of the ESG, institutions should have processes for the design and approval of their programs. The programs should be designed so that they meet the objectives set for them, including the intended learning outcomes. This should serve the overall objective of student-centred learning established in clause 1.3 of the ESG.
We strongly recommended adding to part 4 of the Draft Standard also explicit requirements for learning outcome based programme development as well as assessment of achieved learning outcomes. For example, following criteria could be added / reviewed:
6.9. Number of doctoral and dissertation students assigned to one academic supervisor shall correspond to norms etc. The investment of expert-time requested for checking the fulfilment of the aforementioned requirements will not in balance with the level of potential impact for quality improvement.
As soon as the full trust of the Ministry has been gained, we recommend giving ANO full organizational and operational autonomy regarding its procedures and formal outcomes of the quality assurance processes. Implementing this recommendation definitely requires some fundamental changes on legislative level.
A worksheet has been prepared for the Accreditation Commission (in the Final Review of the Accreditation Commission) for determining whether different accreditation areas are in line, partially in line or not in line with the Accreditation Standards.
However, the principles, pursuant to which the Council determines whether the standards are fully/partially/not met have not been elaborated in the Rules, providing the Council with a very wide margin of discretion in decision-making. In order to ensure equal treatment of all the HEIs and guarantee the consistency and predictability of accreditation results, it would be advisable to develop some sort of a framework for decision-making for the Council. E.g, it could be clarified - either in the Accreditation Rules or some other ANO regulation made available to the public - how the assessments given by the Accreditation Commission to different assessment areas affect the final outcome of accreditation process.
There are 2 missions left in the Component 1 and it is important that the revision of the State Standards of Higher Education and the Statute of Higher Education Institution planned for the last mission week will and support the development of quality in higher education in Azerbaijan.
The Republic of Azerbaijan signed the Lisbon Recognition Convention (LRC) in 1997 and was first country that ratified (1998) the Convention. The preliminary system of recognition of foreign qualifications was introduced in 1992, but the Government Regulation on recognition process according to the principles of the LRC was adopted in 2003.
Until 2016 the competent authority for nostrification was Ministry of Education, since April 2016 the recognition and nostrification tasks were transferred to the ANO when this new institution was established for accreditation and nostrification/recognition.
The Republic of Azerbaijan is highly interested in qualified specialists studied abroad, and for this purpose there is a strict and detailed assessment of study programmes and foreign qualifications. The recognition authority often meets the problem that the quality of some individual qualifications from some countries of former Soviet Union is not at appropriate level to the labor market in Azerbaijan.
About 70% of foreign qualifications are recognised in practice, 20% are not recognised on the reason that knowledge of holders of foreign qualifications are at lower level than requirements in national standards and 10% of applicants present incomplete documentation for nostification.
The ANO is the only competent authority for recognition of foreign qualifications in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The holder of qualification should present the application together with all documentation on-line to the ANO. According to the national legislation, all documents must be translated and certified by apostille. In case the country is not party to the Hague Convention, the legalisation is required. The time limit is usually one month and the process is not free of charge to the applicant.
The procedure to the nostrification has three steps: 1) checking application and documents submitted for nostrification, and assessing whether the qualification is awarded by a recognized education institution; 2) assessing and giving equivalency to the qualification, and 3) inviting the applicant to the interview, and making final nostrification decision.
The assessment of foreign qualification for nostrification is based on seeking equivalency of the study programme. During the assessment of programme it is compared whether the programme completed abroad correspond to the national standard of the same or similar programme. The assessment of equivalency takes place at universities where the same or similar programmes are offered. The comparison of equivalency includes the list of courses and number of hours of each course. The programme content should be the same or very similar to the programme provided by the universities in Azerbaijan. In case the programme is not offered by the universities in Azerbaijan, the foreign qualification should be not recognized.
The objective of the mission was to facilitate the elaboration of a proposal for reflecting higher education of the AzQF in Azerbaijani recognition procedures and practices. The objective includes one-day national seminar on academic recognition of foreign qualifications and periods of study in Europe and Republic of Azerbaijan, and workshop on recognition practices and assessment criteria to the staff of ANO. The main task of the mission was to share information about best practices in Europe and to facilitate recognition criteria and procedure in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Workshop with the staff of ANO; presentations and discussions on assessment and recognition criteria and recognition practices in Latvia, Estonia and Azerbaijan. rafting report and conclusions of two-day visit to ANO.
Meeting at the Ministry of Education. Reporting the visit (mission review). Presentation of observations and main findings. Remarks and recommendations for further cooperation in the field of recognition of qualifications.
All expected results were achieved. Seminar on assessment and recognition of foreign qualifications for the representatives of the Ministry of Education, ANO and higher education institutions, and workshop together with the staff of ANO were organised.
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