Assuring Quality
Best practices for quality assurance require clearly defined, transparent and fair criteria and standards that serve as references for evaluations and reports of programmes offered by higher education providers.
MQA has developed a code of practice on criteria and standards for higher education in Malaysia. This code of practice is benchmarked against international good practices and nationally accepted by stakeholders through various consultations.
The code provides a guideline of general requirements in the following areas:
- Vision, mission and learning outcomes;
- Curriculum design and delivery;
- Student selection and support services;
- Assessment of students;
- Academic staff;
- Educational resources;
- Programme monitoring and review;
- Leadership, governance and administration; and
- Continual quality improvement.
In general, MQA quality assures programmes through two distinct processes:
- Provisional Accreditation - is an exercise to determine whether a programme has met the minimum quality requirements preliminary to Full Accreditation.
- Full Accreditation - is an assessment exercise to ascertain that the teaching, learning and all other related activities of a programme provided by a higher education provider has met the quality standards and in compliance with the MQF.
The MQA Act 2007 also provides for the conferment of a self accrediting status to mature higher education institutions that have well established internal quality assurance mechanisms. To be so conferred, the higher education institution needs to undergo an institutional audit, and if successful, all qualifications it offers will be automatically registered in the MQR.
The processes above are further supported by continuous monitoring to ensure the programmes offered by the institutions are always quality assured.
MQA Quality Assurance Process
The Learning Outcomes
Student achievements are measured by learning outcomes. These learning outcomes distinguish the varying competencies as to what a student will be able to do at the end of a period of study. Learning outcomes are based on eight domains:
- Knowledge;Practical skill;
- Social skills and responsibilities;
- Values, attitudes and professionalism;
- Communication, leadership and team skills;
- Problem solving and scientific skill;
- Information management and lifelong learning skill; and
- Managerial and entrepreneurial skills.
Learning outcomes are linked to the credit system which gives value to all student learning time and are not based on the contact hours between lecturers and students.
THE LINK BETWEEN LEARNING OUTCOMES, CREDIT VALUE, MQF AND MQA
