German agency signs MoU with NUC, others

The German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD, has signed an agreement with the Association of African Universities, Ghana’s National Accreditation Board and the Nigerian National Universities Commission to promote internal quality assurance in higher education in a new project for the West African region.

About 30 participants from universities across the region will benefit from training that is expected to last for around 18 months. The project began with two planning meetings, followed by the selection of 30 candidates out of a pool of 45.

This will be followed by a high-level information visit by vice-chancellors of participating universities to Germany, to help prepare them to provide the strategic and operational support required for the project.

This will enable internal quality assurance officers to effectively implement changes to the services currently provided by the universities.

Solveig Randhahn, project coordinator and head of the Centre for Higher Education Development and Quality Enhancement at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, said the project was primarily intended to develop the capacity of internal quality assurance officers in universities in West Africa, through training.

The project, she explained, would focus on five connected issues of internal quality assurance, including what it means to do effective quality assurance management in higher education institutions, the tools and procedures necessary to implement quality assurance structures, and methods of data collection and evaluation.

“We also have a module on curriculum design and evaluation, then we will focus on teaching and learning. We will talk about issues such as learning outcomes and connection to quality assurance,” Randhahn said. This was because there had been a shift from teaching to learning, and a stress on outcome-based learning now really dominated procedures. There would also be a module on information management, and finally one on how to develop a quality culture in universities
source: http://www.punchng.com/education/german-agency-signs-mou-with-nuc-others/

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