27 January 2022

AUN-QA Tier-1 Training Returns

By
Noppanun Sookping
AUN Programme Officer;

The AUN-QA Training Workshop for Accomplishing Programme Assessment (AUN-QA Tier 1 Training) is back after a 2-year hiatus caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The 1st AUN-QA Tier-1 Training (Online) which took place on 13 December 2021 – 24 January 2022. 
The first round of the digitalized AUN-QA Tier-1 Training (Online) was warmly received with the successful attendance of 31 participants from higher education institutions in three ASEAN countries, namely the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam.

In his opening remarks in the 1st AUN-QA Tier-1 Training (Online), Dr. Choltis Dhirathiti, Executive Director of the ASEAN University Network (AUN), noted that while the on-site training was a preferred option as it had its own merits, it was challenging for the AUN-QA to conduct the training on-site under current circumstances necessitated by the pandemic. Throughout the 2-year hiatus, the AUN Secretariat and the AUN-QA were highly invested improving and digitizing the training’s activities to ensure that the new AUN-QA Tier-1 Training (Online) would be able to maintain the essence of its activities, deliver the training outcome, and meet a very high standard when conducted in a full-online format.

With certain modifications to the activities to ensure the training’s effectiveness in an online environment, the AUN-QA Tier-1 Training (Online)’s 7-week programme now consists of asynchronous and synchronous sessions. In asynchronous sessions, participants would conduct their own self-study with materials e.g., video, supplementary notes provided by the coaches. In parallel, synchronous sessions serve as full-day intensive sessions with a plenary session conducted in the morning and group work sessions in the afternoon for coaches and participants to work together. At the end of this 7-week synchronous and asynchronous course, participants will be able to: 

  • Identify the elements of a quality assurance ecosystem
  • Apply the 4As iterative framework to implement the AUN-QA programme framework
  • Interpret the AUN-QA framework, its criteria and requirements
  • Perform gap analysis on study programmes in fulfilling the AUN-QA programme framework
  • Improve programme QA to close the identified gaps

By deploying this innovative organizational module, the AUN-QA is able to establish an effective and healthy online training environment which provides the participants with flexibility to manage their own on-screen time through self-study while also maintaining a sense of interactivity through the synchronous sessions. 

The success of the 1st AUN-QA Tier-1 Training (Online) can be considered another cornerstone showcasing the AUN-QA’s ever-going efforts in learning, adapting, and continuing its mission to promote quality assurance of higher education in the ASEAN region. The AUN-QA hopes that the AUN-QA Tier-1 Training, now in a new online format, will be able to continue its role in enabling QA Practitioners in universities to understand and apply the unique AUN-QA system under the difficult pandemic circumstances.

Please stay tuned for the future update and more exciting activities from the AUN-QA. 
For more information, please visit https://www.aunsec.org/events/aun-qa-training-course-accomplishing-programme-assessment-version-40-online or contact the AUN-QA at [email protected].