APACC

ACCREDITATION SYSTEM IN HRD WITH TECHNICAL
EDUCTAION AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING

Paased by

Ms. Chuluuntsetseg Dagvadorj
Senior Officer of External Relations and Program Accreditation
The Mongolian National Council for education Accreditation

INTRODUCTION

The Mongolian National Council for Education Accreditation

The National Council for Education Accreditation -NCEA (former the National Council for Higher Education Accreditation) was established as a government agency in 1998. At the initial stage the Council was responsible for accrediting only higher education institutions of Mongolia. Then in 2002, according to the amendments made into the Law on Education, the Council has expanded its functions and became responsible for accreditation of Technical education and vocational training centers (TEVTCs) and quality of educational programs’ implementation at HEIs and TEVTCs.

MNCEA is a non-profit and financially independent agency. It is chaired by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science and the Board comprises of 21 members: 11 members from Higher Education Institutions, 3 members from professional organizations, and 5 members are higher education researchers and 2 members representing TEVT centers. The Council also employs over 150 external evaluators, who assess higher education institutions including colleges and TEVT centers, and educational programs upon their request.

To date, a total of 79 institutions have been accredited: 31 state-owned HEIs, 2 state-owned technical colleges and 46 private HEIs. So far only the Mongolia-Korea Technical College and Radjiv Ghandi School of Production and Art have been accredited out of the 44 TVET institutions.

There are benefits of being accredited such as getting financial assistance from the Government in the form of grants and student loans, participating in the self-evaluation of institutions for the development of quality improvement activities, and encouraging institutions in developing processes for self-assessment and quality assurance leading to the fulfillment of set benchmarks and quality standards.

In 2005, there are 44 TVET schools and technical colleges in Mongolia which are either public or private, including privatized and non-government organizations. Table 1 below shows the growth patterns of TVET schools in a period of five years including those from the private sector. The number of TVET schools has not indicated significant change from about 36 in 2001 to 44 in 2005. Most of these schools are located in Ulaanbaatar and in the regions where industries are concentrated.

Table 1: Number of Public and Private TVET Institutions in Mongolia, 2001-2005

Type of Ownership

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

Public

32

30

30

37

36

Private

4

2

1

2

6

Total

36

32

31

39

44

Source: MECS, 2005.

There is a specific feature of TVET in regard with its types. The 44 TVET institutions are grouped as follows:

6 TCs offering basic, secondary education, diploma and bachelor’s degree;
12 Branch schools or Attached schools to HEIs;
22 VETCs/VTPCs; and
2 Secondary Schools combined with vocational training.

The participation of the private sector is minimal with only 6 private schools. Table 2 shows the different types of TVET schools

Table 2: Types of TVET Institutions in Mongolia

Types of Institution

State Public

Private

Total

Technical Colleges

6

6

Branch/Attached HEIs

8

6

14

VETCS/VTPCs

22

22

Secondary Schools Combined with Vocational Training

2

2

Total

38

6

44

Source: TVET Study Team, 2005.

The participation of MNCEA, MECS and MSWL in the conference on Accreditation and Certification of Technical Education and Training Institution held in Seoul, Korea in 2004 led to an interest of the Government to become a member of the Asia-Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission to enhance the national capacity in developing procedures and standards for the accreditation of TVET institutions. By and large, there is a need to strengthen the present system of quality assurance and certification of TVET institutions.

Accreditation types

Accreditation is a voluntary process which includes both institutional and program accreditation. The institutional evaluation covers such areas as: i) purpose and goals of the institution; ii) building and material base; iii) finance and economy; iv) curriculum; v) faculty; vi) students; vii) library; viii) management and organization and ix) scientific research. The accreditation process may take 1.5 years as outlined: i) institutional self-analysis, ii) peer evaluation, iii) review and endorsement by the vocational commission and iv) approval by the Council through secret ballots.

Organizational structure

The Council operates in close cooperation with higher education and technical education and vocational training institutions, professional commissions/associations and MECS. The Council provides an annual report to the Ministry. NCEA includes the Board of the National Council, accreditation evaluators, Executive Office and coordinates activities of the Professional Commissions.

Organizational Structure of NCEA

Objectives

Objectives of the NCHEA are as follows:

To establish processes for the Assurance of Quality in higher education and TVET institutions;
Implement evaluation and accreditation activities for the overall improvement of the quality and effectiveness of higher education and TVET;
Provides quality management technical assistance and consulting services for higher education and TVET institutions.

CURRENT STATUS

In Education Law of Mongolia it is stated that “accreditation is an evaluation of higher education institutions and their educational activities by authorized independent body in accordance with benchmark quality criteria”. In this regard the Council has developed the preliminary requirements and criteria for accreditation for both institutional and program types.

The Criteria for Accreditation of HEIs and Vocational Training Centers

An institution of higher education and a VTC applying for accreditation should meet the following criteria:
Criterion One: The Institution Has Clear and Publicly Stated Purposes Consistent with its Mission and Appropriate to an Institution of Higher Education. (There are 4 patterns of evidence supporting this Criterion)
Criterion Two: The Institution has Effectively Organized the Human, Financial, and Physical Resources Necessary to Accomplish its Purposes. (There are 10 patterns of evidence supporting this Criterion)
Criterion Three: The Institution is Accomplishing its Educational and Other Purposes. (There are 4 patterns of evidence supporting this Criterion)
Criterion Four: The Institution Can Continue to Accomplish its Purposes and Strengthen its Educational Effectiveness. (There are 4 patterns of evidence supporting this Criterion)
Criterion Five: The Institution Demonstrates Integrity in its Practices and Relationships. (There are 6 patterns of evidence supporting this Criterion)

Accreditation Instrument

The Council uses the following instruments for institutional and program assessments

Self study/self evaluation
External review with on site visit
Readers panel (in program accreditation)

The Council has handbooks for the self-study/self evaluation and the external review. The guidelines are distributed via hard copy and training sessions and meetings.

Procedures:

Before the visit

The process starts two years before the visit is expected, and it is initiated by MNCEA’s Officers who serve as the Council’s staff liaison to the HE institutions. During this visit, the officer meets with various constituencies at the institution and explains the role of each in the self-study process. These include the president and senior administrators, faculty, students, trustees, and (most importantly), the Self-evaluation team. The Self-evaluation team of the college or university is appointed as soon as possible, because it has the actual responsibility of coordinating the self-study review process on campus and writing the final self-study report. It is usually led by a chair or co-chairs appointed by the president--chief academic officers and faculty leaders are often appointed to these positions--and it should represent the total campus community.

Its role is to identify key issues, establish working groups or subcommittees, compile data from across the institution, prepare and analyze interim reports, and finally to assemble, edit, and prepare the final self-study report.

The institution submits the self-evaluation report approximately 2-3 weeks before the visit. The Council’s staff forwards the report, relevant publications and other materials to the External evaluators’ team members.

The Team chair assigns each team member to one or more substantive areas to review and report on during the visit.

During the visit

The team arrives on site and meets the self-evaluation team members to discuss issues and deployment of members. The External evaluators’ team members go to pre-arranged interviews with members of the community in the areas they have been assigned to cover. After that the members meet to share their impressions of the institution, determine whether additional appointments should be set up and begin drafting their sections of the report.

When the interviews and reviews are concluded the team has an extensive meeting to make final decisions on what actions to recommend and what actions to require. Each member finishes his part of the report and submits it to the chair. The Chair drafts the written report and the chair and team give an oral report of their findings to the institution staff. The final report (corrected for factual errors by the institution) is sent to the institution for comment, which the institution provides in the form of a written response.

After the Visit

The team report with recommendations in it and the institutional written response are submitted to the Council. The Council’s Board members discuss the case at length and decides upon a formal final accreditation action.

The full Commission meets and may discuss the case at length, if it wishes. It then decides upon a formal, final accreditation action.

Qualifications of accreditors

MECS nominates and appoints the chair and the members of the external evaluation team; there is no say by the people being assessed. The team is a mixed committee: academics and other experts outside academia. There is no formal training of the potential members. The members meet beforehand and get instructions about what is expected from the team. 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, the report might be public or some parts of the report can be classified as confidential.
III. ISSUES

Performance of accreditation agency and major constraints for operations and unforeseen obstacles
- The current quality assurance system of TVET schools is insufficient and still in its initial stage. Only TEVT centers are included in the present accreditation system. Much could be done to improve vocational training through built-in quality control and competency-based skills testing and certification system.
- Certification as practiced in TVET institutions is the award given when one completed a training program or a short course from a VETC or VTC. A vocational certificate and diploma are awarded upon completion of the 2.5-3 years vocational secondary education and 2-yr postsecondary technical education, respectively. On the other hand, training certificate is awarded by VTCs when one completed a short-term course. In some countries, course attendance for at least 80% of the total training hour entitles one to a course credit while passing an external examination done by the Board of Technical Education/Ministry/government agency led to the award of a higher national diploma in By and large, there is a need to strengthen the present system of quality assurance and certification of TVET institutions.
- The lack of training standards to benchmark the training quality hinders any effort to measure performance at various points in the training cycle.
- There is a lack in the integrated policy among concrete organizations at both the national and the local levels. An accreditation system for TVET should be jointly developed with industry participation and initiated by the MNCEA to enhance the present accreditation system. This may need an external assistance.
- A national vocational qualification (NVQ) framework does not exist in Mongolia which can serve as a strong pillar of the TVET system. The NVQ framework sets the levels of qualification for any forms of formal, non-formal, and informal training for certification with national recognition. It is an employment-oriented system of accrediting and certifying all forms of training. It is used as a credential for employment, admission to postsecondary and higher education levels and continuing education. Most of all, it supports lifelong learning and employability. The government should give priority in putting up an NVQ that is benchmarked with best practices in response to the need to grade the workforce and compete in the global labor market.
- A system of skills assessment and grading of workers is not yet operational. The MSWL has issued Order No. 16 in February 2005 for the establishment of a Central Commission on proficiency and skills assessment or qualification testing of workers as one of the pro-labor policies recommended by the SSSDP. Among others, the Ministry order included the composition and charter of the proposed commission. The MSWL is the most logical agency to undertake external skills testing and certification of workers. In some countries accredited trade and vocational associations from various industry sectors are authorized by the ministry in-charge to conduct skills testing and certification. Skills testing highly complement the certification system done in TVET institutions and can become an integral part of the NVQ framework.

FUTURE PLANS

The quality assurance of TVET is a major concern for improvement. Existing system should be strengthened by:

improving present capacity and resources.
a quality management system based on ISO models of certification established at institutional level
the accreditation system for TVET under the MNCEA enhanced through the development of new instruments and manuals which are exclusively developed for TVET institutions
the system of registration and accreditation of VTCs improved for quality assurance.
a national vocational qualification (NVQ) Framework which is considered to serve as the strong pillar of TVET in creating career pathways in TVET that will be employment-oriented and supportive of life-long learning. The NVQ framework which will be established and benchmarked after best practices.
the total quality management (TQM) approaches which can be useful in the quality assurance of TVET. Quality can be built in the quality management system (QMS) of the organization and grow as part of the corporate values and culture.