AN ONLINE MONITORING WITHIN THE RE-ACCREDITATION PROCESS AT GSU

Within the institutional accreditation process on 30 April, an expert group from the National center for professional education quality assurance (ANQA) conducted online monitoring at Goris State University which is preparing for external evaluation. The aim is to get to know the quality assurance processes at the university and learn about the actions and outcomes of the improvement plan summarized in the GSU’s Institutional Self-Assessment Report 2020. An accreditation expert group site visit to the university was planned in May, but because of the epidemic and the state of emergency in the Republic of Armenia, ANQA has postponed the process as a result of which changes in the schedule will be made.
ANQA’s monitoring of universities provides an opportunity to identify systemic issues, record achievements, and best practices.
During the monitoring, the ANQA specialists had online meetings (on the ZOOM platform) with the GSU’s Rector, Vice-Rector, head of the Educational Department, heads of Chairs, head and staff of the Quality Assurance Department, heads of Institutional Self-Assessment Report’s criteria, lecturers and students. The ANQA specialists, headed by Director Ruben Topchyan, got acquainted with quality the implementation process of the GSU Improvement Plan, the activity of the quality assurance system, the recorded results, the existing problems, and challenges, providing the necessary advice. After the online meetings and efficient discussions, the ANQA experts summed up the problems observed during the monitoring with the GSU’s Rector and the people in charge of the accreditation process, and after the accreditation of 2018, the achievements of the university, which will be preconditions for the re-accreditation process in 2020.