INTRODUCTION

The University Grants Commission (UGC) of Nepal has introduced the system of Quality Assurance and Accreditation (QAA) since 2007 for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The growing participation of HEIs in adhering to the QAA process reflects the country's widening scope of the QAA system. The QAA has already been a core concern and a priority in higher education development at Tribhuvan University (TU). Realising the importance of the QAA, TU established the Centre for Quality Assurance and Accreditation (TU-QAA Centre) in 2017 to assure quality and facilitate accrediting its constituent campuses, central departments, and schools. Quality Assurance (QA) mainly focuses on standards encompassing various key aspects of the entire Higher Education (HE) framework. These aspects include institutional capacity within HEI, academic curricula, teaching methodologies, research requirements, student assessment, and examination systems, as well as other academic infrastructures and environments.

Quality assurance has a broad scope and focuses on academic programmes, HEIs' developments and quality enhancement initiatives. Implementing the QAA process is the mandatory policy at Tribhuvan University of Nepal. It aims to maximise or improve the overall quality of academic programmes and institutional capability by increasing value and gaining a high institutional image. Quality assurance is also a key component of the internationalisation of higher education; thus, the TU-QAA Centre is involved in international collaboration (e.g. Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union). The HEIs play a vital role in internationalisation for developing a globally competent skilled workforce and enabling a more collaborative world.

Goals: The goals of QAA are: (a) to enhance student success by improving teaching and learning mechanisms and provide the knowledge and competencies required for professional development (b) to achieve standards of the central departments, constituent campuses, and schools (c) to enhance the reputation and credibility of academic institutions by accreditation which can attract students, faculty, funding, and other resources to the institution.

Objectives: The main objective of QAA is to promote academic excellence and advancement through quality assurance, accreditation, and continuous improvement. Some specific objectives are: (a) to promote and upgrade the quality of HE (b) to develop existing academic programmes to the level of international standard to meet the need for globalisation of education and labour market (c) to maximize QA or improve overall quality on academic programmes and institutional capacity in boosting the achievement of student and institutional output.

QAA IN TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY

Programs like Medicine, Engineering, and Law at Tribhuvan University are audited and accredited by their respective professional councils to ensure the quality of education. However, faculties and institutions such as Science and Technology, Agriculture and Animal Science, Forestry, Education, Management, Humanities, and Social Sciences, along with other central departments and constituent campuses, lack professional councils, and their graduates are unaudited and unaccredited. Moreover, the goodwill and identity of the institutions need to be encouraged and assured. Thus, the QAA Centre (TU-QAAC) of Tribhuvan University is facilitating the auditing process for the accreditation of its higher educational institutions. In this context, Nepalese education and its universities should be upgraded. To implement a quality education system, the practices and recognition of quality assurance and accreditation play a vital determining and decisive role. Because of these facts, the QAA Centre at TU has developed a framework of guidelines and prerequisites essential for QAA.

QAA Procedure

QAA procedure consists of a four–stage process, which is a combination of self-study and peer review. The University Grants Commission formulated the six major criteria: (1) governance and leadership, (2) curriculum management, (3) research, (4) knowledge generation and extension/outreach, (4) physical resources, (5) student support services and well-being, (6) Human Resource. Currently, the UGC has also started the implementation of new indicators of the QAA system. In general, the four stages of QAA procedures are as follows:

Submission of a Letter of Intent (LoI)

The HEIs willing to participate in the QAA process have to submit a Letter of Intent (LoI) in the specified format along with the information and determine eligibility. QAAD, UGC Nepal has developed manuals and guidelines for eligible institutions to complete the self-assessment process. Eligibility criteria and documents to be submitted with the LoI Form are available on the UGC website (https://www.ugcnepal.edu.np/).

Preparation for the Submission of Self-Study Report

Preparation of SSR is an internal exercise for the participating institutions expected to be performed with honesty, self-trust and confidence. It aims to allow the institutions to measure their effectiveness and efficiency, and identify core strengths and weaknesses. The eligible institutions of TU have to prepare the Self-Study Report (SSR). Upon submission of the SSR report to the Centre for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Tribhuvan University, the centre will evaluate the SSR report by the Expert Team through an internal pre-visit to the respective HEIs. Subsequently, the centre will advise the HEIs to finalise the SSR report through the internal evaluation process and recommend the finalised SSR for submission to the University Grants Commission of Nepal.

Peer Review

Upon receipt of the formal SSR report from the participating institution, the Quality Assurance and Accreditation Council (QAAC) of UGC Nepal form a Peer Review Team (PRT). This team is responsible for evaluating the QAA process by examining the SSR and conducting a field visit to the institution. During this visit, the team inspects evidence patterns to validate the SSR through observation and interaction with relevant individuals within the concerned institution.

Final Decision for Accreditation

The QAAC-UGC, Nepal reviews the PRT report and recommends to the UGC for the accreditation status. The final decision is made by the UGC.

Institutional Arrangement of QAA System in Tribhuvan University

•           Executive Board of TU

•           Internal Quality Assurance Committee of TU (TU-IQAC)

Chairperson: Rector of TU

Vice Chairperson: Registrar of TU

Member Secretary: Dr. Achyut Adhikari, Director, TU-QAAC

Member:  Prof. Dr. Sangita Rajbhandari

Member:  Director, Office of Planning Directorate, TU

Member: Director, Office of the Monitoring Directorate, TU

Member: Representative of University Grant Commission (UGC)

•Centre for QAA of TU (TU-QAAC)

Dr. Achyut Adhikari

Associate Professor

Director

Centre for Quality Assurance & Accreditation

Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal

Phone: (977-1) 4331431

Mobile: (977) 9861490245

Email: director.qaa@tu.edu.np