In higher education, quality assurance is the activity that aims at maintaining and raising the quality in the institutions, e.g. research, analysis, assessing, acceptability, recruitment, appointment procedures, different mechanism and systems. Education Institutions need this activity in order to make higher education meet the need of their stakeholders; e.g. students, society and employers. (Wahlen, 1998)
Thailand Quality Assurance in Higher Education is the result of the 2nd amendment of the National Education Act 1999 which was amended in 2002. The National Education Act 1999 (2nd Amendment in 2002) has set forth aims and rationale for education management that emphasize quality and standard. Since then, the quality assurance in education institution has been acclaimed as the best practice in controlling the quality of education institute.
According to The National Education Act 1999 (2nd Amendment in 2002), the details are delineated in Section 6: Standards and Education Quality Assurance. This assurance is composed of an “Internal Quality Assurance System” and an “External Quality Assurance System”. It is supposed to be a mechanism for maintaining the quality and standards of Thai higher education institutions.
In Thailand, Quality Assurance in Education Institution can be divided into internal and external quality assurance;
Internal quality assurance aims at institutional improvement and assessment of internal accountability.It incorporates every institutional activity that focuses on quality insurance and development in all the fields of activity of the institution. Internal quality assurance concentrates mainly on academic issues and lies in collecting evidence and information about mission fulfillment, efficiency of activity and ways of insuring quality within the institution. (El-Kjawas, 1998)
In Thailand, the Commission of Higher Education has the responsibility to device standards for higher education which should be in line with the National Economic and Social Development Plan and the National Education Standard.
External quality assurance related to the assessment provided by different bodies or individuals outside the higher education institute. Its aim is to achieve accountability. The government institutions usually decide upon the system of external quality assurance of higher education. (Westerheijden, 1998) External quality assurance is necessary in order to prove to the public that the goals set by the institution will be achieved. Higher education institutions bear responsibility to assure their supporters, state and society in general that they are committed to the fulfillments of their mission, use the resources honestly and responsibility and that they meet the legal expectation. (El-Kjawas, 1998)
In Thailand, ONESQA (the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment) is responsible for external quality assurance. The organization is founded with the aims of developing the criteria and methods for external quality assessment. The external quality assessment will be made at least once every 5 years since the last assessment.
Reference from Manual for the Intrenal Quality Assurance for Higher Education Institutions 1)
Harvey (1999)mentioned that the quality assurance is based on three main principle which are accountability, control and improvement
It means responsibility, answerability, blameworthiness and liability.
It means that the institution does not merely control the expenditure of resources but also shows how high quality is achievable with the existing resources.
It is probaly the most widely spread aims of quality assurance
P-D-C-A is typically used in Educational Quality Assurance. The meaning of P-D-C-A is indicated as follows;
Establish the objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with the expected output. By making the expected output the focus, it differs from other techniques in that the completeness and accuracy of the specification is also part of the improvement.
Implement the new processes. Often on a small scale if possible.
Measure the new processes and compare the results against the expected results to ascertain any differences.
Analyze the differences to determine their cause. Each will be part of either one or more of the P-D-C-A steps. Determine where to apply changes that will include improvement. When a pass through these four steps does not result in the need to improve, refine the scope to which PDCA is applied until there is a plan that involves improvement.
1)http://www.mua.go.th/users/bhes/bhes2/QA_Training/manual_eng/manual_qa_13_03_51.pdf access to information on July 22, 2009