Internal Quality Assurance

Related Studies and Literature

Philippines Higher education exerts considerable influence on the larger society. The concern for
quality in the Philippine Higher Education is stated in the Section 1 of Article 14 of the 1987
Philippines Constitution which provides that “the State shall protect and promote the right of all
citizens to quality education at all levels.” The enactment of Republic Act 7722, otherwise known
as the Higher Education Act of 1994 created the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and
directed it to promote and support higher education in the country. It further mandates CHED to
monitor and evaluate performance of programs and institutions of higher learning.

In 1994, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) as organized by virtue of Republic Act

(R.A.) 7722. The following year, September 25, 1995, the CHED Chair issued CHED
Order No. 31, s. 1995 which specified the policies on voluntary accreditation in aid of
quality and excellence in higher education.

The most recent issuance on accreditation, CHED Order No. 1, series of 2005, provides
for Level IV as the highest accreditation status for programs and institutional accreditation
which is mandated to be built on programs accreditation.

Defensor (2011), former CHED Commissioner, stated that in higher education, quality assurance
refers to explicit commitment and practices of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to the
development of an institutional culture which recognizes the importance of quality and the
continuous enhancement of quality of services . Likewise, former CHED Executive Director, Dr.
Roger Perez, offered a practical definition of quality which is not perfection but improving one’s
previous best and showing that yone is at the leading edge in most aspects (Navarro, 2011)

Quality is degree of excellence or relative goodness, and so quality is not excellence per se but it
refers to an ascending degree of excellence – perhaps low quality, moderate quality and high
quality. Even among items or objects with “high quality” one can have higher quality and another
one may possess the highest quality.

All higher education institutions include in their visionmission/philosophy statements

explicit reference to quality or excellence and yet because of the diversity in the
institutional philosophies, characteristics and cultures of the almost 2,000 private higher
education institutions in the Philippines, it is difficult to arrive at a common definition of
quality or excellence that will satisfy all types of stakeholders.

In the absence of common standards of quality and excellence, accreditation has focused
on the institutional visionmission as the center of the accreditation process. Accreditation
requires the school to state its institutional vision-mission in its every department and
program, and to define in concrete terms the indicators which would show that the vision-
mission and goals are being achieved.

On the other hand, Imperial (2017) expressed that as partners pursuing common end goals, both
CHED and the Accredited Agency of Chartered Colleges and Universities of the Philippines
(AACCUP) define and operationalize quality assurance as “ not merely specifying the standards
or specifications against which to measure or control quality but is about ensuring that there are
mechanisms, procedures and processes in place to ensure that the desired quality is delivered.”
In the era of internationalization, what is most important are not mere documentary ccompliance
hastily done but clear evidence of substantive compliance; hence HEIs really need to demonstrate
quality as “fitness for purpose.” It requires the translation of the institution’s HEIs vision, mission,
and goals into learning outcomes, programs, and systems.

In the Philippines and in the world, the accepted quality assurance in education is voluntary
accreditation. Voluntary accreditation is a concept of self-regulation which focuses on self-study
and evaluation and on the continuing improvement of educational quality. It is both a process and
a result. As a process, it is a form of peer review in which an association of schools and colleges
establishes sets of criteria and procedures to encourage high standards of quality education
among its affiliate members. As a result, it is a form of certification granted by a recognized and
authorized accrediting agency to an educational program, where applicable, and/or an
educational institution, as possessing certain standards of quality which are over and above those
prescribed as minimum requirements for government recognition, based upon an analysis of the
merits of its educational operations, in terms of its philosophy and objectives.

The rationale for accreditation is that it is a means of stimulating and accelerating the institutional
growth and development of schools desiring to achieve greater excellence, relevance and
effectiveness. It is also a way of encouraging those schools adjudged to have attained desirable
standards to do even better. Accreditation thus provides a public confirmation that what the
educational institution is doing in its programs is of acceptable high quality.

Sipacio (2015) studied enhancing quality assurance in a Philippine university through course
review and noted that at the National University Manila (NU), there seemed to have a
misalignment of its current Quality Assurance (QA) system to CMO 46, 2012. The manifestations
include the mismatch between NU’s vision, mission, and goals into learning outcomes, programs,
and systems as reflected in NU’s curriculum, teaching, resources, research productivity,
incompetent graduates, and community engagement. However, the change that course review
can possibly impact on the QA of the ABE program at NU was not yet observed because the final
phase of the intervention cannot be possibly implemented due to internal policy issues. The study
used the multiple action research cycles of Coghlan and Brannick (2014), which are “operating
concurrently and these cycles have different time spans” . This model provides “frames to
understand how participation in human systems is developed through increasing complexity as
individuals, individuals in groups and teams, individuals in groups and teams which are part of an
interdepartmental group with other groups and teams, the interdepartmental group within an
organization which itself is a participant in a sector, market and global economy”. Using a case
study to determine the issues in the QA system at NU and the nature and need of intervention,
the data were triangulated through participant observations, one-on-one interviews, and
document analysis. Observations were based on what the researcher as the insider exactly
observes and describes the context of the study. The framework for journal-keeping by Schein
(1999, 2013 cited in Coghlan and Brannick, 2014) known as ORJI (Observation, Reaction,
Judgement, Intervention) was used. This study influenced the proposal on the methodology to be
used and provided insights into the required alignment of an HEIs vision, mission, goals and
objectives to its program outcomes.

In a study by Segismundo (2017), quantifiable insights were gathered on the impact that
accreditation experience has on the quality of education of “Association of Schools of the
Augustinian Sisters” ASAS-member schools in Luzon and the National Capital Region. A
descriptive research design was employed with the use of a standardized questionnaire which
was based on NEASC ‘s (New England Association of Schools and Colleges) standard
questionnaire in gauging the impact of accreditation, modifying some items to suit the locale and
target respondents. The correlational and regression analyses revealed that accreditation
experience, in terms of the following variables (1) professional development, (2) teaching-learning
environment, (3) organization management and leadership, (4) faculty and staff morale, (5) quality
of instruction, and (6) short-term and long-term benefits, was found to have significant combined
effects on the quality of education of ASAS schools. The best accreditation experience
determinant of quality of education was found to be its Short/Long-term benefits. This was
followed by Professional development and Teaching-learning environment.

Segismundo (2017) noted that accreditation will continue to play a crucial role in improving the
quality of education in ASAS-member schools,and there will be greater pressure to hasten the
process particularly since many programs are yet to be accredited. The study further
recommended that while accreditation is a good starting point, in response to the need for world-
class education in this era of ASEAN integration, operational quality assurance activities should
be in place to ensure quality of education. A better way is to combine accreditation with the
certification system of ISO (International Organization for Standardization) for Quality
Management Systems. In the context of the proposal, the roles of accreditation and ISO
certification are to be defined and the roles they will play in BU’s quest for quality assurance.

On the other hand, Ruiz and Sabio (2012) defines “Quality Assurance” as the process of verifying
whether products or services meet or exceed customer expectations. It is a process-driven
approach with specific steps to help define and attain goals. In a study of the Polytechnic
University of the Philippines, quality assurance is an essentially dynamic operation and cannot be
assured by a static process. Thus, there is the need to recognize and validate different institutional
models, and learn about the features that make them effective, finding new ways to define quality,
adaptable to different circumstances.

A quality assurance system in the case of a university is said to increase student confidence and
the university’s credibility as a provider of quality services to improve processes and efficiency
and to enable a university to better compete with others (Pavlenko, Bojan & Trif, 2008).

The rise in the internationalization and globalization of higher education, in particular the rapid
development of crossborder higher education, has underlined an urgent need to establish robust
frameworks for quality assurance and the recognition of qualifications (UNESCO, 2011).
Quality assurance (as defined by UNESCO) is an ongoing, continuous process of evaluating
(assessing, monitoring, guaranteeing, maintaining and improving) the quality of higher education
systems, institutions or programmes. Recognition refers to the acceptance of a foreign certificate,
diploma or degree of higher education as a valid credential by the competent authorities and the
granting to its holder the same rights enjoyed by persons who possess a national qualification for
which the foreign one is assessed as comparable.

Quality in higher education as well as defining a way to measure is not a simple issue. The
complexity of the process increases since the set of quality attributes to be measured and their
relative weight is not constant but varies according to the different stakeholder point of view
(Tsinidou, Gerogiannis and Fitsilis, 2010). Higher Educational Institutions are essentially dynamic
operations – their quality cannot be assured with a static process. Thus, the need to recognize
and validate different institutional models, and learn about the features that make them effective,
finding new ways to define quality, adaptable to different circumstances.
 In a report by the ET2020 Working Group on Schools (ET2020 , 2017), it cited that Quality
assurance involves the systematic review of educational programmes and processes to
maintain and improve their quality, equity and efficiency. This report sets out eight
principles developed by the ET2020 Working Group on Schools to guide quality assurance
systems and to ensure a productive synergy of external and internal quality assurance
mechanisms. While the design of quality assurance mechanisms (tools, processes and
actors) varies across national contexts, their common objective is to improve teaching and
learning – with the ultimate goal to support the best outcomes for learners . Conditions for
effective quality assurance for school development include ensuring ownership of the
process through meaningful dialogue and actions, and an opportunity for 'out of the box'
thinking and creativity. The challenge for the school education systems is to develop and
sustain professional learning communities and cultures to support school development,
with an emphasis on improvement more than quality ‘control’. Whilst the focus is on the
governance of school education systems, the ultimate aim of quality assurance is to
ensure that learners have the best learning opportunities possible.

It is believed that one model of quality assurance cannot fit all systems; therefore it is more
appropriate to explore the role of different stakeholders and the processes they follow at
national and/or regional level. Policy makers may then learn from varied experiences of
their peers in other countries. This includes exploring the interplay among elements of a
system, as recent research-based recommendations point toward a need for greater
coherence within quality assurance systems.

In the European context, accreditation and certification are frequently used synonymously and
what is called accreditation in one country might be called certification in another (POEU, 2009).
They are both about external verification of quality but they have a slightly different focus.
Certification is about compliance with the standards, rules and criteria as defined by a
methodological framework for quality assurance, such as the ISO-9000ff standards. Accreditation
normally will encompass certification: in Italy, for example, a provider certified according to ISO-
9000ff will be accredited by the regional authorities for education and training. In other cases,
accreditation will require more than compliance with the principles of quality assurance
frameworks. Since it means recognition by a public body, the accreditation process may also
consider public concerns such as the adequacy of a training programme for the regional labour
market or its relevance to certain policy objectives. Going beyond certification, accreditation
additionally will ask if certain policy objectives are met by the respective programme.

Accreditation means including an external view of all stages of training provision and quality
assurance. It is a general lesson of life that an external view can help to get a broader and clearer
picture of oneʼs own situation. Accreditation requires an internal quality management system and
so combines internal and external efforts towards quality. Thus, accreditation can make sure,
that self-assessment is not an end in itself but that certain standards are applied ensuring that
change and improvement will happen. A key role for the accreditation bodies is to help provider
organisations make better use of their internal quality management systems.

Ganeuer and Pistor (2017) conducted a case study exploring innovative and effective methods of
internal quality assurance in higher education and their effects on teaching and learning,
employability, and management. The study allowed the university to map out its internal quality
assurance activities and identify shortcomings and areas for improvement. It found out that the
the success of internal quality assurance activities is influenced by a number of internal and
external factors, such as organizational structure, the alignment of the quality assurance system
to organizational culture, legal frameworks, and so on. The factors with the biggest influence on
the success of internal quality assurance activities, according to the survey respondents, are the
manageability of processes, support from leadership, and a strategy to ensure transparent
information. External quality assurance was perceived to be useful as a trigger for internal QA
activities and in terms of accountability to the public. External quality assurance was, however,
not thought of as intrinsically effective in any particular area. External quality assurance in the
form of study programme accreditation was described as ‘bureaucratic’, ‘pseudo-objective’, and
even ‘absolute nonsense’. The process of accreditation was characterized as a control
mechanism, intended to ensure that programmes meet minimum standards. It was, therefore, not
at all helpful to quality enhancement. From these key findings, the following lessons are
suggested for the development of IQA in universities: Integrate IQA with other management
processes and continuous communication is the underlying principle of the quality culture

Aladwan (2018) sought to identify the various effects of IQA, and the internal and external factors
which condition its effective functioning in universities. With these objectives in mind, the
methodology chosen for the project was an international baseline survey and eight in-depth
university case studies. This reveals that while IQA is often focused on teaching and learning,
there can be gaps in its development. For instance, often neglected are IQA tools to monitor
student assessment systems, the physical environment, and the employability of graduates. In
short, IQA means different things in different places. This discussion identifies a number of
changes to improve the quality of study programmes – e.g. changes in content coverage,
assessment systems, and teaching and learning methods – which often enhance the
employability of graduates. The conclusions emphasize the importance of flexible, qualitative
tools for IQA, which function in an integrated manner with quantitative tools, to avoid an
information overload. They also highlight the need to balance academic- and employability-related
IQA tools so as to avoid an excessive specialization of university graduates. Finally,
the conclusions emphasize the importance of evidence-based dialogue on quality improvement
among university stakeholders to the success of IQA.

Trade in education services covers a very diverse and complex reality, ranging from the rather
familiar international student mobility, over the establishment of branch campuses in foreign
countries and the rise of for-profit and corporate institutions, to the emergence of e-learning
suppliers. Van Damme (2002) recommends an adjustment in the quality assurance and
accreditation standards, benchmarks and procedures so that they can be made applicable in a
fair way to distance education, e-learning and other new delivery modes, partly by eliminating
unnecessary references to input- and process-aspects. Likewise, he stated the need to identify
and make explicit the mutual recognition of quality assurance and accreditation agencies and
systems implied in recognition of qualifications, student mobility and credit-transfer arrangements.

According to Kis (2005) , there are the three main approaches to quality in OECD countries:
accreditation, assessment and audit. Accreditation and evaluation (which includes assessment
and audit) differ in their perspectives. Both accreditation and assessment monitor the quality of
teaching and learning, while audit focuses on internal procedures adopted by a HEI in order to
achieve its objectives. Accreditation is a widely used method in quality assurance in OECD
countries. In the United States accreditation of both programmes and institutions is the main
quality assurance method (Eaton, 2004). Accreditation of programmes is used on a regular basis
by about half of the European quality assurance agencies. US accrediting organisations also
undergo a periodic external review based on specific standards, this process is known as
‘recognition’
For any developing country, improving the quality of higher education institutions is of paramount
interest of government agencies especially the Commission on Higher Education. Several reforms
have taken place and Paqueo et al. (2012) points out that one of the initiatives being done is
rationalizing the structure of public higher education and improving the budget to ensure resource
mobilization and cost efficiency. Despite these efforts, there are several issues that need to be
addressed and one is the voluntary nature of the accreditation system. Another related issue to
this is the number of multiple agencies catering to the accreditation of the various higher education
institutions.

Conchada and Tiongco (2015) reviewed the existing accreditation processes and roles of
accrediting bodies to present a clearer perspective on the current situation of higher education
institutions. Similar to other countries in the region, the accreditation process in the country is
initiated by the private sector and is also voluntary which adheres to the nature of the academe.
Though it is a way of fostering academic freedom and motivating some institutions to compete,
this could result in complacency in others. Policy implications include reshaping the institution in
terms of keeping an accreditation mechanism built into the system such as a quality assurance
framework. There is a need to revisit the responsibilities of the accreditation agencies in the
Philippines in order to improve the quality of education among HEIs. Yap (2012) stressed that the
low quality of HEIs in the country affects the growth of the economy. This also has implications
on the employability of Filipinos in other countries. With globalization and the growing demand for
skilled workers, it is imperative to improve the quality of education and one way is through
establishing a credible accreditation system. In order to do this, a review of the current system is
required.

Other countries in the region such as Singapore and Malaysia link their accreditation system
with that of other countries. Yap (2012) identifies several international accreditation systems that
Malaysia has ties with. This includes the Australian Universities Quality Agency, New Zealand
Qualifications Authority, National Education Standards and Quality Assessment in Thailand,
University Association Quality Assurance Network in Singapore, as well as the ASEAN Quality
Assurance Network. The internationalization of the accreditation systems ensures HEIs in
Malaysia to maintain the quality of their programs, curriculum, and the overall learning
environment.

The overall concept of accreditation takes on a new path as countries face the challenges that
globalization bring. The growing demand for skilled workers and high value added products puts
pressure on countries that try to compete in the international market. Moreover, the clamor for a
more sustainable economic growth can be addressed through the quality of HEIs.

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Theoretical Framework. This study has its underpinnings on Dewey's theory on

experience (Dewey, 1938 as cited in Hasbun & Rudolph, 2016; Schmidt, 2010), which
discussed the value of experience in education and posited that experience comes from the
combining of continuity and interaction. He believed that a person's past and present
experiences, impact his or her future experiences (continuity) and that there are contextual
influences that affect the current experience. This is relevant in this article as these ASAS
schools' recent experiences with accreditation were affected by previous ones, as well as
current situational factors, which will then affect future experiences with accreditation.

There is a necessary and intimate relationship between the processes of experience and
education (Quay, 2003; Quay, 2013). Since not all experiences were educational, Dewey (1938
as cited in Greenberg, 2003) challenged educators to provide learners with experiences that
resulted in growth and learning. He believed that these experiences would, in the future, result
in growth and creativity in learners' experiences. In other words, continuity of experience states
that a good experience at present would most likely impact future decisions and experiences.
(Greenberg, 2003; Neill, 2005; Arstila and Kiverstern, 2014)

Reference: Dewey, J. (1938/1997). Experience and education. Macmillan.

Dewey rejected both theories and, instead, proposed that educators recognize the
relationship between experience and education. He wrote, 'There is an intimate and
necessary relation between the processes of actual experience and education.'
Recognizing that not all experiences were educational, Dewey challenged educators to
begin providing learners with experiences that resulted in growth and learning, believing
that these experiences would someday result in growth and creativity in learners' future
experiences. In other words, a good experience now would impact future decisions and
experiences. This is what Dewey called the continuity of experience.