27 October 2022

Inspiring Experiences Captured from the First Onsite Training Course for Accomplishing Programme Assessment, Version 4.0 (Batch 9)

By
AUN Writer Team

By Boonyanuch Jaroenittikoon, AUN Programme Officer

Our previous article featured the detail of the 9th AUN-QA Training Course for Accomplishing Programme Assessment, Version 4.0 (AUN-QA Tier-1 Training). The training is not only a prologue for you to get to know the AUN-QA and its assessment programmes better but also a course providing you with the quality-assessment model, criteria, and requirements applicable to one’s education development. In this article, AUN Secretariat had the opportunity to interview some of the trainers and participants to get a glimpse of their experiences and reflections on this training programme.

Let us explore some of the perceptions and comments from the interviewees:

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“A worthwhile training that every university in ASEAN should join. It provides so much valuable knowledge that is useful to my programme and institution” — Asst. Prof. Dr. Monirul Islam, CamEd Business School (CamEd Institute), Cambodia

Asst. Prof. Dr. Monirul Islam stated that this training programme provided applicable information about how an institution can manage its system to be in line with AUN-QA criteria. All sessions of this event were equally important, and his favourite part was that all trainers have their own unique way to improve the participants’ understanding. After this programme, he plans to implement the guidelines and criteria into his classes and institution. Moreover, he suggested that universities in the ASEAN region should definitely join this training programme in the next batch.

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“It’s the new way. I’ve talked to my colleagues to implement the knowledge from this training” — Asst. Prof. Dr. Oracha Rakdee, Prince of Songkla University (PSU), Thailand

Asst. Prof. Dr. Oracha Rakdee also plans to use the knowledge and experience harvested from the training to develop her programme and university. She further stated that, by joining this programme, she understood the purpose of AUN-QA and the meaning behind all the data that she had read from a book and guidelines more than before. Moreover, the training improved her Self-Assessment Report (SAR) writing skills, which is beneficial to her programme since she will be submitting for the AUN-QA assessment next year.

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“This training is content-flexible and not just principle-based. It helps me see what can or cannot apply in my context” — Assoc. Prof. Dr. Normah Maan from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Malaysia

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Normah Maan said that UTM had three programmes awaiting an assessment from AUN-QA. Hence, she was excited to attend the training as it could help her prepare for the upcoming assessments in terms of writing a Self-Assessment Report (SAR). During the training, she was impressed that this training was content flexible, which helped her see what can or cannot apply in her context. It is not just principle-based that sometimes it is quite difficult for practical use. Moreover, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maan expects to become an AUN-QA Assessor and is looking forward to the upcoming Assessor Training Workshop. She also added that if AUN-QA is interested in organising the training programme outside of Thailand, she is happy to be the host and work with AUN-QA in the future.

To get a comprehensive experience and feedback, AUN also asked Prof. Ir. Dr. Shahrir Abdullah, Deputy Chairperson of the AUN-QA Council, to share his thoughts as a trainer of this programme.

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“The first onsite Version 4.0 Training is very different from online. It allows us to be more interactive and work in a lively environment.” — Prof. Ir. Dr. Shahrir Abdullah, Deputy Chairperson of the AUN-QA Council

To Prof. Ir. Dr. Shahrir Abdullah, this training programme is so much different from the ones held online. This event allows the participants and trainers to interact in both lectures and group activities. It opens the floor for everyone to discuss and share practices. Furthermore, he also pointed out the big changes that were added in Version 4.0. This version adds requirements for study programmes to show achievements in accordance with the expected outcomes. It is more adaptive to technology and focuses on entrepreneurship value, which is in line with the fourth industrial revolution at the moment.

If you think this is it — it is not! In our next article, we will feature how we continue to improve our AUN-QA Tier 1 Training to ensure quality service to the QA Community. Stay tuned to walk with us in the AUN-QA  journey—“Our Commitment to Continued Improvement!”