Activities in Muslim Countries Center for Quality Assurance in International Education

Activities in Muslim Countries

Center for Quality Assurance in International Education

The Center for Quality Assurance in International Education has nearly a two decade history of working with international organizations, governments, national accrediting bodies and institutions in the quality assurance/accreditation of higher education at the international, national, institutional and program level.  The Center is the premiere organization to work globally in the area of quality assurance/accreditation as it has worked directly with two-thirds of the countries which report that they have national systems.

The following is an inventory of activities of the Center for Quality Assurance in International Education in Muslim countries globally:

Region-Wide Asia:

• The Center has been active since the late 1980’s in quality assurance and accreditation activity in the Asia Pacific region, including Indonesia and Malaysia.
• In 2004, The World Bank asked the Center to write a report which envisioned ways for regional capacity building in quality assurance and accreditation in higher education. The Center’s President, Dr. Marjorie Peace Lenn, wrote the World Bank publication, Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Higher Education in East Asia and the Pacific, which became the basis of a $1.3 million grant to the emerging Asia Pacific Quality Network, followed by similar grants to networks in Latin America, Africa, and the Arab States and in 2007, a global-wide grant for capacity building under the aegis of UNESCO.
• The Center was Administrator for the first two years of the World Bank grant to the Asia Pacific Quality Network.

Region-Wide Arab and Gulf States:

·         The Center convened the national accreditors of the region to organize a regional network for the Arab States. In 2007, this network became eligible for a World Bank development grant. (See World Bank publication and grants above in Asia section.)

·         The Center administers the International Recognition in Teacher Education process in cooperation with the (U.S.) National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. Colleges of Education in universities in the following countries are involved in the IRTE process:  Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

 Egypt:

·         The Center assisted the national accrediting body in a Strategic Planning for Quality Assurance exercise for public universities. Each university underwent a self-evaluation process and was reviewed by combined international and domestic external review teams coordinated by The Center.

Indonesia:

• The Center assisted the Ministry of Higher Education in the development and enhancement of its national accrediting body as part of a major World Bank Higher Education Project both in 1997 as BAN-PT was emerging and in 2007 when BAN-PT was evolving to include institutional accreditation. 

Jordan:

·         The Center assisted the Al-Hussein Fund for Excellence, a private quality assurance body supported by the commercial banks of the Kingdom in two major areas: (1)  program reviews in all public and private universities in such areas as nursing, finance and banking, accounting, English, etc. which provided external review services on behalf of U.S. accreditors; and (2) a system-wide program in Strategic Planning for Quality Assurance for all public and private universities. Each university underwent a self-evaluation process and was reviewed by combined international and domestic external review teams coordinated by the Center.

·         In the (World Bank funded) Higher Education Project in 2008, the Center assisted the Jordanian government in planning for a national infrastructure for accreditation in higher education.

Malaysia:

• The Center assisted the economic development division of the Office of the Prime Minister in planning a multi-year infrastructure for the major expansion of vocational and technical education through telecommunications.

 Oman:

·         The Center provided early consultation in the development of the national accrediting body for Omani higher education.

Palestine:

·         The Center provided the primary consultative services in preparation for a major World Bank Higher Education Project in the areas of quality assurance and accreditation and in the specific development of the Quality Improvement Program, a competitive grant program for the Palestinian institutions of higher education.

·         The Center assisted the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education in securing a grant from the European Commission’s TEMPUS Program for the training of institutions and staff in the process of accreditation.

Saudi Arabia:

• The Center has assisted the NCAAA, the national accrediting body, since its founding in the development and enhancement of its national process in such areas as standards and procedures development; planning; and pilot testing the process.
• The Center assisted the Ministry of Health in evaluating national health curriculum, beginning with nursing at the associates and baccalaureate levels. 
• The Center assists institutions of higher education in their preparation for accreditation, including major strategic planning activities, training in the process of self-evaluation, international benchmarking and international external review/accreditation.

United Arab Emirates:

• The Center assisted the Ministry of Higher Education in evaluating and enhancing the outcomes of the national accrediting body.
• The Center has evaluated the national capacity for banking post-secondary education for Emiratii in response to the Ministries of Finance and Labor.

Contact Information:

            Dr. Marjorie Peace Lenn, President       lennm@cqaie.org

Dr. Bethany Jones, Vice President and Director Arab and Gulf States Office   Bethany.Jones@cqaie.org; bethanysjones@aol.com