Higher education providers should be continuously assuring and enhancing the quality of their learning, teaching, scholarship and research. Higher education accreditation is a form of quality assurance process usually undertaken by an external agency to determine if appropriate standards in the delivery of these areas have been met. Some accreditation agencies make site visits, some do not, and some do if they consider the documentation received from the higher education provider to be inadequate in some way.
Higher Education Providers’ Response to Academic Accreditation
Most universities as providers of higher education have a division/unit with a whole team of people devoted to keeping abreast of accreditation requirements. They are expert in the preparation of documentation required for accreditation/reaccreditation. Smaller private higher education providers tend to employ consultants who are expert in accreditation to support them in the accreditation/reaccreditation process.
In both circumstances, the written documentation typically reflects knowledge on the part of the provider about how to ‘best’ present their case to the relevant accrediting authority. The chief motive is demonstrating to the external accrediting authority that the provider is compliant with the expected criteria. At the same time, the provider normally acknowledges there are some areas that require further development. As a consequence, communication is included about how the organization is working through a number of initiatives and developments to address and so bring about further improvement in academic standards and overall quality of provision.
The provider wants to paint a picture of solid and comprehensive evidence and commitment to academic quality and, at the same time, dedication to continuous quality improvement. It’s not cheating. It is perhaps at worst maybe exaggerating the excellence of how well the organization does deliver on learning, teaching, scholarship and research.
The Benefits of a Site Visit
An on-site visit allows an accreditation review team to verify the written data provided to them by the higher education provider. Just as importantly for the provider, it also offers an opportunity for the review team to evaluate those features that can’t really be effectively illustrated in written form.
The site visit usually involves discussions with key personnel within the organization, including academic and administrative staff, management, students, recent graduates and employers. These meetings can reveal so much more than the documentation alone can. They can help affirm claims made in the documentation, assist in clarifying inconsistent information or providing missing information.
Throughout the course of various discussions with organizational personnel, not only do things become clearer for the review team, the organization, through questions posed by the review team, learns much about its practices, both strengths and areas for improvement. There is a chance to seek clarification from the review team about issues and to start to reflect on how to correct or transform ways of doing things that can’t be fully replicated when working cold from a review report that includes discussion about areas for improvement. In fact, it is human nature to (at least initially) react unenthusiastically and defensively to a report that includes comments about what you’re not doing well. The site visit can act as an educative process for all involved.
An on-site visit allows an accreditation review team to verify the written data provided to them by the higher education provider. Just as importantly for the provider, it also offers an opportunity for the review team to evaluate those features that can’t really be effectively illustrated in written form.
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