MQA does rigorous evaluation

WE refer to the report “Only the best must be chosen” ( The Star, July 23) which quoted Prof Dr Edmund Terence Gomez of Universiti Malaya’s Faculty of Economics and Administration saying that the MQA’s (Malaysian Qualifications Agency) curriculum review “should not be just paper work but to vet how courses were run and if proper teaching methods were implemented.”

We are grateful for his concern and we would like to take this opportunity to clarify that the accreditation is an expert evaluation on the entire system of development, operation and monitoring of a programme.

The accreditation emphasises compliance to the Malaysian Qualifications Framework. It covers programme objectives and learning outcomes, curriculum design and programme delivery, student assessment system, teaching staff, student selection and support, education resources and facilities, programme administration as well as programme monitoring and curriculum review.

Proper design and preparation is verified through a provisional accreditation before the programme is offered to students. Various aspects of delivery are reviewed during the first cohort of students in the final year of study through a full accreditation exercise. Both evaluations involve two or three experts in the field of study trained by MQA.

A full accreditation involves a visit to the institution for at least two days with various review activities, including interactions with faculty, students, institutional management; teaching observation; reviewing student records, teaching, learning and student assessment as well as verification on educational facilities and resources. All activities during the visit provide good triangulation towards robust accreditation outcome beyond documentation.

MQA requires equal rigour for the accreditation undertaken by universities with MQA self-accrediting status.

MQA’s approach to accreditation is based on international practices and verified by its international peers. This is evident through certification received by MQA (2013 till 2019) for its alignment to the INQAAHE Guideline to Good Practices for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. MQA has received positive views from a mix of European and Asean international peer reviewers who concluded earlier this year that it is at a high degree of compliance to the Asean Quality Assurance Framework. The audit was carried out through the EU-SHARE programme under the auspices of the AsiaEurope ASEM Process.

We hope this explanation will offer a more accurate picture on the current state of the MQA accreditation process.

MALAYSIAN QUALIFICATIONS AGENCY Cyberjaya