UNAIR NEWS – Apart from regional level (AUN-QA), UNAIR has plans to improve the quality of education based on international accreditation institutions. If the assessment by AUN-QA assessors can reach all study programs, then accreditation at the international level is carried out by certain institutions that have the same scope as the related study programs.
“Such as ASIIN (Accreditation Agency for Degree Programs in Engineering, Informatics/Computer Science, the Natural Sciences and Mathematics). ASIIN is for worldwide, even though he is located in Germany, he is more concerned with engineering, but also in natural sciences, such as mathematics. There is also the AACSB (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) accreditation which is more business-oriented. So, it depends on the study program because not all of them can be accredited by one body, "explained the Head of the Airlangga University Quality Assurance Agency, Prof. Bambang Sektiari Lukiswanto, drh., DEA.
Later, BPM collaborates with study programs to find the right and appropriate accreditation body to conduct the assessment.
Regarding the visitation, the Professor of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine could not give a definite time. According to him, each accreditation body has a process that varies from one another.
“So, we have to become members first, attend their workshops. After attending the workshop there is assistance, compiling a self-assessment report, after that we will communicate the Self Assessment Report (SAR). After communication, whether they think it is appropriate to be forwarded to the committee, we will follow the process. But the point is, what we emphasize in 2017 is that there are study programs that can be visited by international accreditation bodies,” said the Head of BPM.
In addition, the matter of which study programs will be assessed by an international accreditation body is still under consideration. However, he encourages study programs that have been accredited A by the National Accreditation Board for Higher Education and internationally certified by AUN-QA to immediately look for an appropriate international accreditation body and be able to assess the study program concerned.
Regarding the standard of assessment, the Head of BPM said that the standards set between AUN-QA and international accreditation bodies were not much different. In principle, they will assess the objectives and the learning process as expected learning outcomes.
“Actually, what is important is that we carry out our educational process as well as possible. Then we look for an international accreditation body that can assess the study program. If it's like that, we adjust the standards they set. We adjust whether we can meet their standards or not,” he said.
In addition to the optimal implementation of the educational process, international accreditation is also one of UNAIR's targets to improve quality according to the standards of study programs at the world's leading universities. (*)
