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After lodging its complaint to the Higher Education
Relevance & Quality Agency, the ranking of Alkan
Health College’s degree program has been modified as
having fulfilled the minimum requirement.
Alkan was one of the 13 higher institutions, whose
degree programs were put on one year probation time,
since one of its campus was ranked as not fulfilled
the minimum requirements.
The rating of the Agency, announced almost two
months ago was a much debated subject among higher
institutions after it revealed that the degree
programs of five institutions were to be closed and
13 campuses of 11 institutions put on one-year
probation founded on their quality. Those outside
these two categories were rated as having fulfilled
the minimum requirement.
However, many contested the rating, which they said
were supposed to actually rank the institutions.
Following the announcement, 14 institutions along
with Alkan submitted their complaints to the board
of the Agency, whose evaluation was completed last
week.
Among the five collages which were banned from
continuing their degree programs, Hayume Health
Science College in Ambo, and Nile College in Mekelle,
were two which asked the board to have a second look
at their evaluation process.
Admass University College and Unity University also
appealed the decision of the board. Although they
were rated as having fulfilled the minimum
requirement, they complained that the rating they
received, which has not been made public yet, was
inaccurate.
The Education Quality Agency is expected to announce
its decision soon.
This is not the only issue the Agency is trying to
resolve based on the complaints of higher
institutions. The agency is also evaluating the
distance education programs of 22 higher education
institutes, which have been banned by Ministry of
Education (MoE) since August 2010.
Distance education had become a popular choice by
many before it was closed.
There were 38,403 students enrolled in distance
education programs in governmental higher
institutions and 44,178 in private institutions in
2009/10 academic year. This was a 195pc and 76pc
increase respectively from the year before.
The agency has been evaluating distance education
programs to decide whether they should be re-opened.
The final stage of the evaluation, testing those who
have been enrolled in these programs, was conducted
over the last two weeks.
“We had already evaluated the input and process
standards of colleges and universities engaged in
distance education,” Tarekegn told Fortune.
Some of the Additional evaluation Standards for the
distance education program includes module
distribution and the status of the experts who
ratified the modules, the resource centre of the
institutions, tutor frequency and attendance
documentation, communication systems like fax and
internet, and systems for distance students to see
and comment on their test results.
The final component tests what the agency is calling
output through examination run by National Agency
for Examination. Although the Education Quality &
Assurance Agency had initially planned to test 10,
416 students only 6, 292 students took the test,
which was prepared by Addis Abeba University.
The fields from which students were tested were
Management, Accounting, Public Management,
Agricultural Economics and Development Management.
These fields of study were chosen because they are
shared by most of the higher education institutes’
distance education programs, according to Tarekegn.
The results of these tests are being evaluated and
will be added to the previous indicators of input
and process evolution, and on whose results the
Agency will decide whether or not to continue the
ban on distance education. |
