Prof. Nazife Güngör: "Quality assurance is essential to train qualified people"
Üsküdar University Rector Prof. Nazife Güngör brought the issue of quality standards in the quality of scientific knowledge and raising qualified people to her column this week in her weekly articles in 12 Punto. Here is Güngör's article titled 'Quality assurance is a must to train qualified people':
"Achieving the world standard in education is quite important in terms of the international validity of the education provided. Therefore, quality is one of the important agenda issues of universities both in the world and in Türkiye in recent years. As institutions, universities that provide education and training services and produce scientific knowledge, contribute to the development of the country and society and direct the course of the world. Therefore, it has great importance to ensure the quality standard in the quality of the scientific knowledge produced in the education and training service provided in these institutions. However, issues such as what quality is, how it will be determined, how it will be measured, what standards it requires, and so on, have become one of the important agenda issues of universities in recent years with the guidance of the Council of Higher Education. To carry out studies in this direction systematically and continuously, the Higher Education Quality Council (YÖKAK) was established. It can be said that YÖKAK initiated a quality mobilization to ensure the quality standard in all universities in Türkiye and to accelerate the accreditation studies in cooperation with the Council of Higher Education. As a matter of fact, I think that the Quality Conference organized by YÖKAK in Ankara on April 25-26 will accelerate the work in this direction. I would like to draw attention to some interesting points from the discussions held within the scope of quality and accreditation at the conference, which continued for two days with the participation of rectors and quality managers of universities in Türkiye, with the presentations of experts on quality at international and national level. Based on the evaluations made at the meeting and the questions asked, I understood once again that the issue of quality and accreditation in our universities is not yet fully understood. For example, I was surprised that the gap between students who continue their education to be stakeholder-oriented and students who graduate is still confused. In the same way, what can be said in the face of the view that the top management units in universities, that is, the rectorates, should be seen as external stakeholders of the institution? I understood from the audience in the hall, all of whom are academics who are in an administrative position in our universities, that we are still at the very beginning of this issue.
However, being in control does not mean despair. In this sense, it is understood how important and necessary the meeting held by YÖKAK is. Despite some confusion, we are not in a bad situation. It is very important to come together, to put our confusions or clarity on the table, to discuss and share for the process to proceed on a healthy basis.
Quality means that an institution plans its positioning within the system, its relationship and interaction with other structures in the system. Quality-oriented planning has great importance to turn the outputs of the institution into contribution and maximum benefit.
On the one hand, universities train workforce for various business lines and professions in society, thus contributing to production and economic development. On the other hand, they contribute to technological development and the establishment of a more comfortable and livable world through the production of scientific knowledge. However, one of the important duties of universities is to contribute to the production of value for society and humanity by raising good people with visionary, intellectual, humanistic aspects. To fulfill all these tasks properly, a quality-oriented approach is required.
One of the points that was noted in this context at the meeting was that quality could be measured quantitatively and qualitatively. For this reason, experts tried to answer questions such as what quality will cover, what criteria it requires, how the criteria will be determined, and how the measurement will be made.
In this context, attention was drawn to the importance of evaluating and continuously observing the quality, scope, goals and outputs of the education and training services provided in universities in the context of certain criteria. At this point, it is important that each program within the scope of universities makes its own self-assessment in the context of these criteria. For this, external evaluations are important. At this point, it was suggested to get support from accreditation bodies operating at national and international level.
External eye evaluation has always great importance. It is not always easy to see the outside, to respond realistically to needs and expectations, and to fully understand the external situation when you are closed in. Today's world is developing and changing very fast. The integration and transformative effect of technological developments into life is very fast. It is no longer possible to stay stuck in campuses to adapt to change and transformation and to respond instantly and realistically to changing and renewed needs, and it is not realistic. Quality and accreditation studies are of great importance in this respect, that is, in terms of seeing the outside of the campus.
Nothing is the same anymore. The time for theorizing in our ivory towers is long overdue. Today's world requires constant and intense interaction and quick thinking. It is very important for academics to observe and monitor constantly and closely, and accordingly, to constantly update their own scientific productions and education and training approaches. From this point of view, it is necessary to resort to an external view and evaluation at regular intervals. To what extent the knowledge we produce in our universities corresponds to real life; To understand to what extent, the manpower we are training coincides with the needs of the society and the world, it is important to consult the opinions of external evaluators from time to time in terms of turning the efforts into value.
It also has great importance that universities are open to each other in quality processes. Collaborations and partnerships both within the country and at the international level are necessary for quality studies to progress on a much more realistic basis and to ensure quality standards. Interaction in education, cooperation in the production of scientific knowledge, sharing the outputs of production are of great benefit in gaining the vision of universities and strengthening their missions.
Therefore, it is important for academic units and programs that operate in the same field and produce similar services to cooperate and interact in terms of increasing the quality of achievements and outputs in quality studies. On the other hand, presenting the operation, service and production to the evaluation of external evaluators from time to time is very useful in terms of ensuring the quality standard of the production and the service provided."
Üsküdar News Agency (ÜNA)