«Students’ involvement in the procedures of quality assurance of higher education»

On March 28-29, 2019 NAA with the all-Russian public organization «Russian Union of Youth (RUY)», the Mari State University (MarSU), the Irkutsk State University (ISU) and Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation, Bonn (FIBAA) held a round-table “Students’ involvement in the procedures of quality assurance of higher education”. The event was devoted to the implementation of the joint project “European Quality Assurance for Students, EQAS”.

The representatives of the expert organizations participating in external reviews (the National Accreditation Council of Business and Management Education – NACBE, the Medical League of Russia), as well as the representatives of the Independent Agency for Accreditation and Rating (IAAR, Republic of Kazakhstan) were also invited to take part in the meeting.

The EQAS project (financed by the Jean Monnet program) is aimed at gathering, analyzing and disseminating European good practices in involving students in higher education quality assurance (both external and internal).

The event was started by Lemka Izmaylova, NAA’s Director. The representatives from three countries – Germany, Kazakhstan and Russia – met at the roundtable. Professor Dr. Kerstin Fink, FIBAA’s Managing Director, told about accreditation of HEIs in Germany and the students’ role in the procedure. Alina Zhumagulova, IAAR’s Director, shared her experience on students’ involvement in the procedures of program assessment.

The expert organizations took part in the discussion of the issues to students’ involvement in independent assessment of education quality. Sergey Myasoedov, NACBE’s Vice-Chairman of the Bureau, spoke about the practice of involving students in independent assessment carried out by the organization and about the prospects of this activity. Tatyana Litvinova, Chairman of the Expert Council, spoke about the experience of involving students in professional and public accreditation of medical study programs.

The experience of involving Russian students in internal quality assurance through the activities of student government bodies was presented by the rectors of two leading Russian universities - Irkutsk and Mari State Universities.

Darya Panarina, Head of the RUY project "Open Education", spoke about the forms of students’ participation and involvement in quality assurance with the help of project activities conducted by the Russian Union of Youth and the National Council of Student Commissions on education quality. Furthermore, students from Russian universities shared their experience of participation in quality assurance such as engagement as an observer in the Unified State Exam (USE), external and internal assessment of the education quality.

The round table participants noted that expert assessment, both external and internal, remains one of the main tools for ensuring the quality of education and involving students in the education quality assessment. It should contribute to greater transparency in quality management and, as a result, improve the quality of education in general.