Mongolia 's Vocational Education and Training System and Its Accreditation Experience

1. INTRODUCTION


There have been passed 40 years since Mongolia began to domestically prepare professional workers. In 1963, with the adoption of the first education law, the establishment of a continuous and united vocational education system, consisting of vocational orientation and skills development at general secondary schools, primary vocational and technical schools and on-the-job training started . Beginning from the mid of 1960's, when there occurred an inevitable and important requirement to have own professional staff, not only a number of professional workers began to be trained through vocational schools of the former Soviet Union and other East-European socialist countries, but also relevant technical and agricultural vocational schools were founded throughout the country to prepare skilled workers for manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, railroad and construction sector as well as animal husbandry which have become national economic sectors.

If by the end of the 1980's when the country began the transition to the market economy, the number of attendants of the technical and vocational schools was 32 000, by the year of 1994, it was decreased down to 7500, and in general, most of above schools were forced to be closed.

However, in the result of a proper policy pursued by the Mongolian Government toward the issues of developing technical and vocational schools, increasing the number of their attendants, and making graduates of the schools more competent, since the recent time, quite positive results have been observed.

The Government has begun to finance a variable expenditure allotted per a student of vocational education and training institutions, and for the last 4 years, this expenditure has been increased by 36.5%. The Government also covers the food expenditure for the students living in the dormitories of those schools, and this expenditure has been also increased by 28.2%. In the result, in the year of 2003, the number of attendants of technical and vocational schools (Vocational training & production centers) has reached up to 21.6 thousand, increasing in 1.7 times in comparison with 2000. Currently, over 80% of the vocational school graduates are provided with relevant work places.

The Law on Vocational Education and Training was developed and approved by the Parliament of Mongolia in May, 2002, and in the result of this, there has been established a legal framework for promoting vocational education and training institutions, connecting vocational schools with the labor market, and forming a social partnership. Besides, the training expenses spent on providing a primary level vocational education are increasing from year to year, and this creates an important condition for expanding the service accessibility, increasing a training involvement, as well as for the training quality improvement. Prior to issuance of this law, the technical and vocational relations had been regulated by the Law on primary and secondary education.

Although, there occurs several such achievements and positive results, by the moment, the vocational education and training institutions of the country are facing quite big challenges.

For over the last 10 years, there hasn't been executed any technical innovation at the VETIs, and because of this, the institutions encounter with certain difficulties in introducing to the students the basis of modern industry, and thus, in preparing high quality professional workers.

In addition, the relevant measures or works directed to preparing and re-training teachers of VETIs have been left far behind.

Since, for the last years, the activities of the VETIs have been regularized and improved, there has occurred a necessary requirement to heighten the demands made for those institutions, and execute an accreditation or attestation for them. For this purpose, the first VETIs have begun to be involved in the accreditation, beginning from the year of 2004. "The Regulations on accreditation for VETIs " were approved in December 2003, and VETIs shall be extensively involved in the accreditation beginning from the year of 2005.


2. STATUS OF NATIONAL ACCREDITATION SYSTEM AND ITS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTION


2.1 Status of National Accreditation System

The Mongolian National Council for Education Accreditation (former the National Council for Higher Education Accreditation) was originally established as a government agency in 1998, and by 2000, the NCEA had become a non-government, autonomous body with state and public representatives.

The Council maintains an effective relationship with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (MOECS) and HEIs, VETIs and operates in cooperation with the Mongolian Foundation for Open Society, the Education sector Development Project of ADB to enhance the legal environment for improvement of accreditation and the transfer of international practices for educational quality assurance. The NCEA is a full member of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in higher Education (INQAAHE) and INQAAHE Asia and the Pacific Sub-Network.

The Council is an organization, which provides accreditation at both institutional and educational program levels countrywide. The initial focus of the Council has been the development of institutional accreditation of HEIs. The legal framework for Program accreditation was established in 2002, and the Council has conducted accreditation exercises on several academic programs of selected institutionally accredited HEIs in cooperation with Professional Councils, beginning from September 2003.

According to the amendments made into the Law on Education in 2002, the Council has expanded its functions and became responsible for accrediting vocational education and training institutions (VETIs) and quality of their educational programs¡¯ implementation.


2.2 Objectives of the NCEA

The National Council has defined and articulated its objectives as follows:

	To establish processes for the Assurance of Quality in HEIs and VETIs;
	Implement evaluation and accreditation activities for the overall improvement of the quality and effectiveness of higher education, and vocational education and training;
	Provide quality management consulting services for HEIs, VETIs and their educational activities.

 

2.3 Standards or criteria for accreditation

Accreditation - institutional and program- is a voluntary process for all the HEIs, educational programs and VETCs. It requires an educational institution, program or VTC to meet certain defined standards or criteria. The standards or criteria for accreditation of HEIs and VETCs are formulated by the NCEA. The NCEA provides institutions with preliminary requirements and general criteria for program accreditation. The more comprehensive criteria for program evaluation are developed by Professional Councils, which comprise of the members of NCEA, evaluators, representatives of academia, government/ministry representatives, members of professional bodies and industry representatives. (The criteria for accreditation of HEIs and VETIs is attached to this report).


2.4 Organizational structure of the NCEA

The Meeting is the basic duty of the National Council. These meetings have the right to make decisions on accreditation. The Council has the chairman, the vice chairman and the members. The NCEA Meeting is chaired by the Deputy-Minister of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (MOECS), but a majority of the members are not government officials. It is thus a mixed (governmental and non-governmental) type of organization. There are 15 members of the National Council Board, with 9 members from Higher Education Institutions, 4 members from professional organizations, and 2 members from research organizations. The Council also employs over 100 external evaluators, who assess HEIs, VETIs and their programs upon their request.


2.5. Authority and Policies

Accreditation is an evaluation of higher education institutions and their educational activities by authorized independent body in accordance with benchmark quality criteria.
Currently in Mongolia there are 32 vocational education and training institutions. Since its establishment the Council has accredited 69 higher education institutions: 28 state owned and 41 private HEIs. Among these institutions there are two VETIs: Construction College (accredited in February, 2002) and Food Technology College (accredited in May, 2002). Over 70 percent of total number of students study at the accredited institutions.
These institutions are preparing for the second cycle of accreditation, which is started in April 2004. So far 9 HEIs have successfully reaccredited and retains their accredited status for a 10-year term. Only those institutions, which have become accredited, are eligible to receive government financial support, and students enrolled in these HEIs/VETIs/programs are eligible for government grants and loans.


2.6. Benefits of Accreditation


2.6.1 For higher education institutions and VETIs:

	Accreditation provides a process to assist the Government in the allocation of financial assistance for HEIs, VETIs;
	Accreditation encourages faculty members of HEIs and VETIs to participate in the self-evaluation of teaching and learning leading to the development of quality improvement activities;
	Accreditation encourages the institution to develop processes for self-evaluation and quality assurance leading to the fulfillment of benchmark quality standards.

2.6.2 For students and the public

Accreditation provides assurance for the public of the quality of the education and operation of an accredited higher education institution, VETIs; and provides a guide for students in selecting an appropriate institution for their studies
Students enrolled in the accredited institutions receive eligibility for financial assistance, grants and scholarships

2.6.3 The Government uses accreditation

	to assure quality education for the citizenry
	to define higher and vocational education nation-wide
	to assure a quality labor force
	to determine which institutions and programs receive public funding and research funding
	to use as means of consumer protection

2.6.4 Employers use accreditation to assure qualified employees and funding organizations to determine eligible institutions.


2.7. The accreditation process

The accreditation process includes following steps:

	The NCEA defines the requirements, standards, and criteria for accreditation.
	An institution should write a report after its self-study using guidelines and documents prepared by the NCEA and send this report to the NCEA with its application.
	An external evaluation team visits the applicant institution and assures whether it meets the standards. All members of the external evaluation team have to sign the team report.
	The NCEA should discuss the team report and assess whether the institution meets the requirements, standards, and criteria for accreditation and certify that the institution is accredited, and makes it public by press.

2.8. The External Evaluation Team

The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science nominates and appoints the members of the external evaluation team; there is no say by the people being assessed. The committee is a mixed committee: academics and other experts outside academia. The NCEA approves the rules for selection of the evaluation team. There is no formal training of the potential members. The members meet beforehand and get instructions about what is expected from the team. The evaluation team reports to the Council. Results of the team visit and recommendations are discussed with HEI and VETI before reporting to the Council. The external evaluation team is responsible for the content of the report and the report is published without any change of the content. Sometimes, the Council takes an initiative to demand clarifications from the evaluation team if needed. The reports are normally made public, but not widely distributed. In consultation with HEI and VETI the report might be public or some parts of the report can be classified as confidential.
The institutions do self-assessment by self-study of:

	their purposes and goals
	the building, material base
	finance and economy
	curriculum
	faculty
	students
	library, books, data of information
	management, organization
	scientific research

2.9 Activities of the Council at Institutional Level

The main activities of the Council at institutional level can be described as institutional assessment. The Council and its external evaluators examine the college or university as a whole educational institution. The evaluation is followed by a formal accreditation decision.

The NCEA uses Self-study/self evaluation and External review with on site visit in institutional and program assessments. The Council has handbooks for the self-study/self evaluation and the external review. Those guidelines are distributed via hard copy and training sessions and meetings.

2.10 Financing of the Assessments

For setting up the Council, the Government has provided some funds for the start-up. The Council is funded by the institutions and programs to be assessed. The audit or assessments are paid by the contribution of the institutions being assessed.
Number of audits/assessments over last 4 years (1998-2002): 10-50 higher education institutions. Average yearly assessments of institutions are 10.


2.11 Approach

The Council has no national approach; this means an institution/program is being assessed individually. However the Council intends to use the same evaluators for all similar programs in the country.


2.12 Development Direction

NCEA will continue its work to develop the processes and policies for conducting program and institutional accreditation for assuring and advancing the quality of education in Mongolia. Given the newness of program and institutional accreditation and self-evaluation processes, NCHEA might consider developing training programs for institutions and programs focused on effective self-evaluation, writing of self-evaluation reports, assessment and improvement of student learning, and ways of integrating institutional and program self-evaluation with each other and with ongoing planning and budgeting processes of the institution.

A process for systematically reviewing and revising program and institutional standards and criteria needs to be implemented, as well as a means to collect basic data on institutions.

Develop key policies for applying and lifting sanctions on institutions and programs which are in jeopardy of not meeting accreditation criteria after already having been accredited, those for establishing minimum threshold eligibility of programs and institutions, those for assisting or intervening on behalf of students in sanctioned institutions or programs, those on collecting data from and on publicly disclosing information about accredited institutions and programs, and those for board/council governance and decision-making processes.

Currently, training for site visit teams for institutions and programs is minimal. Further, the processes for recruiting and selecting peer reviewers seem to be more ad hoc than systematic. Clear, credible processes for recruiting and selecting peer reviewers are needed. Further, training and evaluation processes for peer reviewers need to be implemented in order to ensure an effective evaluation, consistency of application of criteria, and the professionalism objectivity, competence, reason, and judgment that mark effective peer reviewers.

Although NCEA has made tremendous progress in establishing processes and support materials for teams and institutions conducting both program and institutional evaluations, the Council will consider defining more clearly the team report structure, format, and content, as well as the processes and responsibilities for team consensus on recommendations and the writing of that report.

And last but not least, the NCEA needs to clarify its fees and structures to overcome the appearance of conflict of interest or possible gaps in integrity.

3. PRESSING PROBLEMS IN ACQUIRING INTERNATIONAL/REGIONAL ACCREDITATION AND CERTIFICATION

3.1 Present Situation

The Government of Mongolia assumes that the vocational and training institutions would play an important role in ensuring the economic growth of the country, increasing the living standard of the population, eliminating the unemployment and poverty rate, and enhancing the labor-engagement opportunity, and thus, duly supports the activities of those institutions.

A clear example of this is the Law on vocational and training that was approved for the first time in Mongolia, in 2002.

Today, in the country, there are 32 vocational education and training institutions, which provide the primary and secondary level vocational education, and at those institutions, over 1000 teachers are instructing approximately 21000 students for nearly 90 professions.

At the VET centers, professional workers are being prepared in the fields of agriculture, construction, mining, travel & tourism, food & light industry, service, etc. which are in the high demand within the relevant local areas.
The Government bears the main responsibility or burden in order to promote the sector of vocational and training.

All of below described expenses are currently covered from the state budget. These include:

	the regular expenditure of the state-property vocational & training institutions; the total dormitory expenditure for the students who are studying in the primary level classes, and
	the changeable expenditure allotted per a student, not depending the type of property. Besides, students of vocational and training institutions are provided with free training equipment, and teaching materials
	The lands utilized for the training purpose including the area under the ownership of the training institutions are freed from relevant taxes.

3.2 Currently Encountered Difficulties

Financial resources of the VETC's are quite restricted.
For the last years, any effective technical innovation or investment hasn't been executed at the VETC's.

Although, there conducted the spot checks on labor demands and required professional skills in social sectors as well as in urban and rural areas, the results of those surveys aren't always reflected in the policy planning and information exchange activities.

Although, there operate several concrete organizations at both the national and the local levels, they don't join their efforts toward developing an integrated policy.

The vocational & training /PET/ is always given a specific importance in the programs of the Governments, but, in reality, they give completely different results.

Detailed surveys including the surveys on the PET profitability, labor conditions, marker demands, and professional skills, aren't almost conducted.

There is no national independent institution for planning the PET.


3.3 Starts of Some Currently Executed Works

The legal environment for accreditation of the structure and curricula of the VETI¡¯s is being created.

The regulations on assessing the activities of the VET institutions are currently observed.
The professional standards have been developed and now, they are being tested.

Some spot checks on VET have been conducted within the framework of the international projects.

There exists a lack of specialists and financial resources necessary for conducting further surveys.

There exists an urgent requirement to make the specialists of specialized supervision departments, scientific institutions, and methodological units more qualified or competent


3.4 General target

1.	To increase a role or involvement of the vocational and training in the social welfare and care policy to ensure a social equity, directed toward the elimination of unemployment and poverty caused by the socio-economic transition;
2.	To change or renew the training system or structure coordinating it with the newly occurred social relations, and to implement the systematic renovation directed toward the capacity-building of management staffs;
3.	To develop and implement the VETI's educational and training content standard, methodology and its assessment, relying on the customers' demand, and coordinating with the labor market requirements;
4.	To prepare the teaching personnel, and renew textbooks, training environment and equipment in conformity with the VETI's content standard and technological innovation.

4. RECOMMENDATIONS IN RELATION TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ACCREDITATION AND CERTIFICATION BODY FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC REGION


Mongolia has a population of fewer than 3,000,000 people and 183 HE institutions. At this point in time, 69 institutions are accredited; the first 3 programs are just accredited. Further, many institutions and programs are "one-of-a-kind." In creating and mounting peer review processes, it is likely to be difficult to find within the country an adequate number of peer reviewers from like institutions and programs who are free of conflict of interest. So there is a great need in partnering with other neighboring countries or consortia of countries using accreditation processes provide other sources of peer reviewers. On the other hand, it may be that a different set of checks and balances can be built into the process to ensure adequate numbers of peer reviewers who can conduct an objective program or institutional evaluation.

	Being the newest in building national accrediting infrastructure Mongolia needs a more concentrated national capacity building activity. International consultation, collaborative training and development programs on the process of quality assurance region-wide would be useful. Experience in another national setting can benefit both the inexperienced or experienced accreditors, so in this regard both short-term staff exchanges and longer- term staff secondments are encouraged.
	Creation of regional information clearinghouse on accredited institutions and programs of VETIs for regional mobility purposes; potential development of global database of accredited institutions and programs; credit transfer schemes etc.
	Development of common standards or a uniform protocol to evaluate VETIs and mutual recognition agreements