On March 21st the Accreditation Committee of National Center for Professional Education Quality Assurance foundation held a session, where decisions were made about institutional accreditation of three higher education institutions.
According to the committee’s decision Armenian National Agrarian University and Yerevan “Gladzor” University received institutional accreditation for 4 years and Northern University received conditional institutional accreditation for 2 years.
For each university separate discussion took place with the attendance of Accreditation Committee members, representatives of the university and the Ministry of Education and Science and head of the peer group which had implemented the accreditation process in the university.
The head of the expert group presented the results of institutional review, the university’s strengths and weaknesses, recommendations and the experts’ assessment of university’s follow-up plan. Then university representatives presented their view on discussed topics and answered the questions of the accreditation committee. After the discussion, the Accreditation Committee held a closed debate and a vote.
In accordance with the accreditation procedure, the accredited universities must make an institutional assessment every two years and present the results to ANQA. And the university with conditional accreditation must make a report to ANQA about the implementation of the follow-up plan every six months.
The purpose of the accreditation is the determination of the compliance of educational services and learning outcomes to the defined goals, societal needs, standards and priorities set by the Government of RA.
The Accreditation Committee will soon make a decision on the accreditation of other universities that have already passed the accreditation process.
Earlier the Accreditation Committee has granted accreditation for 6 years to YSU and accreditation for 4 years to YSMU and NPUA.