How should the institutional accreditation processes proceed during the pandemic? This question was on the agenda of meetings with experts who are currently involved in external review panels and representatives of the universities which are in the process of accreditation. The online meetings took place on May 25 and 26.
3 possible options were discussed: to postpone all the processes till the end of the pandemic, to conduct the whole accreditation process online, or to combine online processes with short site-visit.
The participants expressed their opinion on whether it will be possible to ensure the same results of the online external review as in real site visits. The possible difficulties and risks of online accreditation processes were also discussed.
It was stressed out that regardless of the accreditation format and time, activities of educational institutions during the pandemic will be reviewed in detail to find out the effectiveness of the university management in emergencies, as well as the potential, and the ability of risk management.