Accreditation Assuring quality in higher education

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2.2 Assuring quality in higher education

All qualifications included in the IQF must meet an agreed standard established by all relevant stakeholders. Since the nature of vocational education and skills training is closer to the world of work, it is understandable that this sector was the first in implementing agreed competency standards for sectors. In many countries, for example those implementing the British system for post secondary education, academic learning has tended to be the last in implementing agreed learning outcomes for disciplines.

2.2.1 Accreditation

The Law 202003 on the National Education System stipulates that accreditation is mandatory for all education providers. Currently the accreditation process is carried out by the following agencies: • National Accreditation Agency for Basic and Secondary Education BAN-SM; • National Accreditation Agency for Higher Education BAN-PT; • National Accreditation Agency for Non Formal Education BAN-PNF; and • Independent Accreditation Agency LAM 2 . TRAINING COURSE PROVIDERS SKILLS TRAINING PROVIDERS SKILLS TRAINING PROVIDERS MINISTRY OF MANPOWER MINISTRY OF EDUCATION CULTURE BNSP SKILLS TRAINING PROVIDERS BAN SM BAN PNF MINISTRY OF RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY, HIGHER EDUCATION BAN PT LAM SCHOOLS PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS UNIV, COLLEGES, INSTITUTES POLYTECHNICS Figure-2: Accreditation agencies for education, training andor assessment providers In addition to the accrediting agencies illustrated in Figure-2, there are a limited number of providers under other line Ministries which operate outside the system. Just to mention a few: the college of aviation, the college of maritime, the police academy, and the military academy. In the higher education sector, the accreditation process is conducted by BAN-PT using the National Standards on Education as the main reference. The National Standards on Education is developed by the 2 LAMs are currently established to accredit the professional education, such as medical education and engineering education. In the medium term, the mandate of LAM will be expanded to cover accreditation of all study programs, whilst BAN-PT will focus its attention to conduct institutional accreditation. 7 Board of National Standards on Education BSNP and is enacted by the MoEC regulation. Although learning outcomes have been included in the national standards, the current assessment process does not assign significant weight to the outcomes. One of the possible reasons is that assessors are not yet sufficiently trained to assess educational outcomes. In addition to government accreditation, some study programs in more established universities also acquire international accreditation, mostly from international professional associations such as the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology ABET. In ASEAN, the ASEAN University Network AUN provides services to assess the quality of an education provider. Some university study programs have benefitted from such optional external services.

2.2.2 Professional certification