ACCREDITATION PROCEDURE FOR DUAL PROGRAMS

“KAZDUAL – Implementing dual structure in Kazakhstan” is a three-year project co-funded by the Capacity Building in Higher Education program (Erasmus plus). The project started in January 2021 and will finish in January 2024. The project serves as a pilot to produce the necessary regulations and recommendations at policy level to establish a flexible dual system through professional education at vocational and higher education level.

Piloting of selected courses under D3.3 according to KAZDUAL system, will be conducted during academic year 2022-2023. During one academic year, companies and colleges and HEIs will work on an established program following dual education. This will serve as reference for the MESRK to introduce changes at national level. By realizing their pilot implementations during the project MESRK will be able to analyse the achieved results.

According to the application, pilot accreditation under WP3 “D3.4 Piloting of accreditation procedures for selected courses (self-evaluations, study visits, etc)”:

• IQAA, ACQUIN and members of CEENQA will conduct accreditation visit of selected programs. This is also part of QA. Their documentation provides the results of the analysis and summarizing of the individual implementation after pilot testing. Milestone M32 of project.

• The pilot programs should serve to revise standards, since often they don't correspond to needs of enterprises and will improve learning and teaching tools, methodologies and pedagogical approaches.
• During the selection of piloting programs, each HEI will present the defined specific concept of dual practice with selected companies in order to make agreements for their participation in the piloting study program which would start in the academic year 2022-2023.
• The selection of piloting programs, based on the results of the preparation period, will be used by the HEI’s to define a specific concept of dual practice with selected companies in order to not only ensure a flexible professional program including the flexibility of program concepts and duration of internships and practical phases but also to make agreements with the private sector for the piloting programs in the academic year 2022-2023.

The above will have as main result a legislative framework and accreditation procedures for dual professional education needed for establishment of dual system Model in Kazakhstan.

2. Workplan

According to the project application, this WP is covering the period 2022-2023 of the project. Involved partners commonly agreed on the proposed timeframe for WP3, taking into consideration the transferring of all activities into virtual environment and meetings. The detailed workplan is found below:

Allocation of roles – WP3 internal meetings

Roles as described in application:

• Parallelly, accreditation and normative procedures will be supervised by TKK (IQA) and ACQUIN (EQA). CEENQA will provide experts during the pilot phase and the MESRK will observe the project implementation to define changes in regulations or legislation.At quality assurance level, the project is further enriched through the participation of a TKK in Estonia for internal application and delivery of ESGs and QA procedures. 
• CEENQA, an association of accreditation agencies in Central and Eastern Europe, will provide experts and reviewers during the piloting phase. IQAA will be represented there as well and will learn how to apply procedures by participating in the pilots.
• IQAA as part of CEENQA are also an excellent channel for dissemination and exploitation of the network for quality of professional higher education practitioners.
• The MESRK will be actively involved in the development of the most optimized Dual Higher Education Model as it will serve as example for government to follow across the country. Depending on the region and sector, the model of cooperation with industry and companies may vary but the project will set common standards for the different collaboration scenarios between Kazakh students, HEIs, vocational centers and companies.

Split of tasks and sub-tasks as per workplan

Introduction to accreditation procedures (Workshop-Q&A session)

Appointment of a KazDual Accreditation Team (contact persons in each organisation)

Guidelines to partners for the preparation of the self-evaluation report

ACQUIN & CEENQA presentations during Bayreuth November 2022 quality assurance workshop serve as the basis for the preparation of universities and colleges self-evaluation reports. Additional guidance will be provided as per time plan. A devoted team from the accreditation agencies will monitor the progress of Kazakh partners every 3 weeks and will serve as contact point for answering requests. When needed, extra online sessions will be devoted to support Kazakh partners in writing their reports.

Recruitment & training of expert group

The profile of experts

The pilot accreditation procedure is performed as a peer-review procedure.CEENQA and ACQUIN in consultation with project partners will compose a group of experienced and trained experts who will act as assessors for the KazDual selected training programs. The experts are both qualified in matters of accreditation, quality assurance, dual professional education and the subject of the respective program.

Synthesis of Expert Group

Notes:

• As discussed, the composition of the expert group should be as flexible as possible. Depending on the subject and the available experts, there might be cases where two professors (expertise in the respective field + expertise in dual education) + one student would be better.

Impartiality clause

Impartiality requires the disclosure of such circumstances which could give the impression of bias. This could include, for example:

• Currently running application process, appeal hearings or impending change;
• Less than five years of past employment or study;
• Relatives, close personal or professional ties to or conflicts with the members of the University’s/VET provider’s staff;
• Participation in commissions, advisory committees or advisory bodies that affect the certification procedure immediately;
• Currently running intensive cooperation projects relating to the training program under consideration;
• Assessment by the members within the past year.

Tasks of expert

The experts will have to participate in the tasks below:

• Participate in the expert training to be familiarized with the standards that are to be applied along with Q&A session;
• Read the Self-evaluation reports of the applicant institutions;
• Consider all materials prepared for the training program;
• Write parts of the Evaluation Report based on their findings (work can be split among experts). Experts must state their opinions on whether the curriculum should be accredited in the future and propose any recommendations. Accreditation partners will provide a checklist with the applicable standards and aspects to be taken into consideration. The final reports will be elaborated by ACQUIN & CEENQA based on the written feedback of the experts.
• The onsite resources can be presented to the Expert group via online conference call. Optionally, a national expert can visit the premises representative for the group to evaluate whether they are equipped to run the training program successfully.
• The pilot accreditation procedure is a collegial advisory process based on constructive critique: If the experts perceive ways in which theprogram could be improved, they should be discussed with the directors of the program.

            Conduction of online conference (site visit)

A relevant template is provided.

Additionally, the (n)etiquette of how institutions present themselves and prepare for the site visit has been presented by CEENQA during Bayreuth QA workshop (see relevant presentation).