26-27 September 2016: international seminar “Russian and European Quality Assurance Standards of Higher Education: on the way to integration”

On 26-27 September 2016, an international seminar “Russian and European Quality Assurance Standards of Higher Education: on the way to integration” was held at the premises of the Chechen State University in Grozny. The seminar became a follow-up of the international dialogue on the issues of education quality assurance and evaluation initiated at the meeting of the Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science which took place at the Situation and Information Center of Rosobrnadzor on June 22, 2016.

The seminar brought together over 400 participants from 8 federal districts of Russia (Central Federal District, Northwestern Federal District, North Caucasus Federal District, Urals Federal District, Volga Federal District, Siberian Federal District, Far Eastern Federal District, Southern Federal District) - representatives of educational and scientific organizations. The seminar was also attended by the certified experts of Rosobrnadzor involved in external reviews of educational activities, representatives of international quality assurance organizations and international educational organizations from Armenia, Moldova, Great Britain and Kyrgyzstan.

The seminar was declared opened by the Rector of the Chechen State University, Zaurbek Saidov. He wished the participants fruitful work and noted that it was an honor for their educational organization to host the seminar participants of such a high level.

The participants were also welcomed by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic, Shahid Akhmadov on behalf of the Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov.

The Director of the National Accreditation Agency (NAA, Russia) Lemka Izmailova opened a series of presentations on the experience of education quality evaluation in different countries with the report on state accreditation of educational activities as a tool for assessing the quality of higher education in the Russian Federation. A representative of the National Center for Professional Education Quality Assurance Foundation (ANQA), Anushavan Makaryan made a report on evaluation of the quality of study programs in European countries by the example of Armenia. Other seminar participants – Director of the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Professional Education (ANACIP, Moldova), Andrei Chiciuc and the expert of the Independent Accreditation Agency EdNet, Meylikan Altyvaeva (Kazakhstan) shared their work experience in this field.

Training of experts is acknowledged as one of the important issues of the education quality assurance. The report of Irina Sukovataya, the expert of Rosobrnadzor was devoted to the results of the ENQA training workshop on the use of Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG 2015) which was held in Ljubljana (Slovenia).

At the end of this part of the seminar Inna Pomorina, professor at the University of Bath Spa reflected on experiences of external reviews in the UK. She noted that there are strict requirements applicable to the qualification of the academic staff, and that accreditation in the UK is institutional.

During the break, the participants took part in the flower-laying ceremony at the memorial complex "Walk of Fame" in the center of Grozny. The memorial is one of the Russian monuments dedicated to the exploits of the Chechen people - participants of the Great Patriotic War. The flower-laying ceremony at the Walk of Fame is a tradition of all significant events taking place in Grozny.

The seminar proceeded with the workshop sessions, which allowed for creating an open dialogue on state accreditation with the involvement of leading specialists of NAA and certified experts of Rosobrnadzor.

Foreign colleagues joined the seminar with a video message to the participants. Susanna Karakhanyan, President of the International Association for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) and Christoph Grolimund, Vice President of ENQA, Director of the Swiss Agency of Accreditation and Quality Assurance (AAQ, Bern, Switzerland) described the main directions of their organizations’ activity, and indicated the prospects for cooperation with NAA.

The second day of the seminar started with the presentation of Hozh-Ahmed Khaladov, Rector of the Chechen State Pedagogical Institute, who told about the internal system of the education quality management applied at his educational organization. The theme was further developed by Maya Magomayeva, Director of the Department for Teaching and Learning of the Grozny State Oil Technical University. Maya Magomayeva made a report on the internal education quality evaluation as the main source of information for the diagnosis of the main performance results of an educational organization. The report of Mansour Arsanukaev, Deputy Director of the Project Office of the Science and Technology Institute was also of interest to the seminar participants and informed about the development of the innovative infrastructure at the Chechen State University.

The Deputy Chairman of the All-Russian public organization “Russian Union of Youth” Vladimir Selin together with the Deputy Chairman of the Coordination Council of the All-Russian public organization “For the quality of education” Ivan Nikanorov spoke about the operating experience in involving students in the assessment of the education quality.

The seminar became a platform for the participants to discuss topical issues of quality evaluation within external reviews of study programs, peculiar features of the methodology for assessing the quality of programs’ delivery during accreditation in different countries, as well as the tools for assessing the delivery of study programs within state accreditation.

A significant outcome of the seminar is the inclusion of international experts from Great Britain, Moldova, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan in the Register of certified experts of Rosobrnadzor.

At the end of the seminar NAA and the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Professional Education (ANACIP, Director – Andrei Chiciuc, Moldova) signed a cooperation agreement. Earlier NAA had signed cooperation agreements with the Accreditation Agency for Degree Programs in Engineering, Informatics, Natural Sciences and Mathematics (ASIIN, Director – Iring Wasser, Germany), Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation (FIBAA, Director – Birger Hendriks , Germany), Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education (SKVC, Director – Nora Skaburskiene, Lithuania), National Center for Professional Education Quality Assurance Foundation (ANQA, Director – Ruben Topchyan, Armenia), Independent Accreditation Agency EdNet (Director – Onolkan Umankulova, Kyrgyzstan), Independent Kazakh Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (IQAA, President – Sholpan Calanova, Kazakhstan) and the Independent Agency for Accreditation and Rating of the Republic of Kazakhstan (IAAR, Director – Alina Zhumagulova, Kazakhstan).

Video report - http://grozny.tv/video.php?id=30389

Photo report - https://cloud.mail.ru/public/5ATg/ii5AfbWGv